Twilight Perfection
by thegr8sephiroth
Summary: AU. Frequent runaway plot arcs. A long piece, prewritten, to be updated as I finish editing chapters. We reversed some roles and replaced others. The changes should be pretty clear. Finally Aeriseph. Warning: Hellsing referenced on a regular basis
1. Chapter 1

Twilight Perfection

Chapter One: Police Rescue FBI, she wants a riot! She wants a riot!

"Hey Seph!" The man who said could have been anyone, or almost anyone. He wore perfectly normal red sneakers leading up to a pair of red long pants and a red T-shirt. Of course once you went north of his neck it became hard to define him as "just anyone."

First you had his glimmering red eyes that looked like a pair of sparkling rubies. Then as you went even farther up you discovered that the man had red hair, the exact same shade of bright red as his eyes. Then you finally got to the part that made you want to spit out whatever beverage you had been drinking at the moment. Sticking out from beneath the man's hair were his ears, assuming they belonged to him. They would have looked more natural on a cat. After all they where covered in red fur and flicked back and forth like a cat shaking water off its ears. "I'm back from my trip to the land of Mako and Honey!"

The silvered haired man being addressed by the cat eared one did not look amused. In fact a very prominent scowl played across his face. "Officer Firecat..." The two words left his mouth, with the undertone of a parent telling a child to wash his hands before dinner. The cat eared man instantly recognized the silver haired man's instructions and snapped into a fairly good salute.

"Sorry General Sephiroth. Chief Reconnaissance Officer, James Firecat reporting. I finished my walk through the land of Mako and Honey, Sir!" Sephiroth had come to realize something over the time he'd worked with James: give him a month and he could train a mob of unarmed peasants into an army capable of conquering a small country. Give him till the entire Planet was nothing but a dead husk (which might not be all that long at this rate) and he still would not be able to train proper military discipline into the being known as "James Firecat".

At least James always meant well, and it wasn't like it ever affected his performance in combat, but he would always be an itch Sephiroth couldn't scratch. He gave a small nod to him, and James instantly relaxed from his semi-formal salute. Sephiroth snapped his fingers and a moment later a woman breezed into the room.

She had the body of a dancer, well muscled, but without an ounce of weight being wasted. She wore a white body suit leading to black long pants and then white shoes. Her eyes were neon-green just like Sephiroth's, even if they didn't glow quite as remarkably. Her hair was a lively brown, except for a streak of solid white which parted it in the middle. She selected a chair and reclined into it, her entire body a picture of perfect relaxation. "So General, is it time to cry havoc and let loose the cats of war?" Sephiroth once again bit back a frustrated scream. "Yes and no Mirri, yes and no. Just because James has completed his reconnaissance assignment doesn't necessarily mean that you have."

Mirri (The woman) smiled and reached into a pocket and pulled out a small black data disk. "Please, have I ever failed you before, General Sephiroth? I swear that sometimes you forget that you where not the only soul tempered in the hell that was the Wutai war. Now in my hand I hold the codes for the Shinra Sector one mako reactor."

Sephiroth growled again very slowly. "Remind me why I should trust you Mirri, once you put on the bloody crown of treachery nothing can remove its stain." The woman slowly returned the data disk to her pocket.

"Please General, you should know me better then that. My entire life has been based on defying the expectations of everyone who knew me. My parents told me that I should get into chocobo racing, that the best I could hope for would be to become a jockey. However I packed up my bags and headed for Midgar, and volunteered for the SOLDIER program. I was first class and serving with General Sephiroth before the war was over. Now being a first class made me a lot of money, and a while back I thought that luxury would make me happy. As it turned out however, I was wrong. I've been living with luxury for almost a decade now and I'm bored out my mind. Which meant I had to find something else to do. As I saw it I could either start doing some actual fighting again, or learn how to knit. To be quite frank, knitting really doesn't agree with me. Oh, as if I needed a tiebreaker, I'm not fond of Shinra Blue, it really doesn't look good on me, I prefer white and black. Now, as I was saying, I'm more then willing to help raise some hell. Heck, you want proof of how bored I am? I'm living in Sector Seven because the only time I ever have a 'good' day is when an idiot tries to rape me and I kick his balls up between his ears before I cut them off. So I can either go back to my boring little existence, or I can work with you, General Sephiroth, around you interesting stuff is always happening."

Sephiroth glared one more time at Mirri, but then let it drop. He had known her well enough from their time spent fighting together to know that she wouldn't betray him. She wasn't the type to while away her life in luxury; she just wanted to do that in her free time. "Did you complete both parts of your mission?"

Mirri calmly stretched out her entire body, extending her fingers and letting out a small sigh of satisfaction. "This is Shinra we're talking about General, take the paranoia down a notch. A first class SOLDIER asking for some explosives, I signed some forms, they gave me C4. I got it with a 10 minute fuse just like you asked me to. I can walk in, blow the entire place to hell, and show up for work in the morning looking angelic as ever. They won't have a chance in hell to realize that I had anything to do with it."

If nothing else could be said for her, Mirri was never one to be caught lacking in confidence. Sephiroth finally gave Mirri an approving nod. "Take Chief Reconnaissance Officer Firecat along with you in case you need his help. Even if you don't, he should help you create a distraction, I believe you two are familiar with each other. I think between the two of you there should be no problems."

James, lying on the ground, nodded doing a small sit-up in the process. "Of course, just like fireworks." Sephiroth scowled at James again, even if he knew it was a futile gesture. "Fireworks? This is s a bit different, Chief Reconnaissance Officer. These aren't just fireworks, they're beacons. Beacons of raw destruction to show the world that I have returned to it. I expect you both back by 2200 hours, understood?"

James, suddenly propped his shoulders and head up looking at Mirri. At the same time Mirri's eyes finally acknowledged James' existence. Then at the same time "Yes, Sir!" James saluted while he was still lying down horizontally, and Sephiroth wasn't sure if it was a good thing or not.

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Getting past the automatic defenses was easy. James was in a pair of Shinra hand binders, and Mirri was in the sexless blue Shinra uniform with a helmet on. Mirri's uniform did however have the first class SOLDIER chevrons on the collar, and so none of the guards paid much attention to her. It was not the same when they finally got to the reactor door.

James's ears recovered from the drooping position they had been in up to this point as he looked around making sure no one was close enough to hear. "How come I can't be the SOLDIER and you can't be the prisoner?" Behind the helmet Mirri smiled, she had worked with James before, and had managed to attain the ability to find him funny instead of annoying. "Well for one thing, because I actually am a SOLDIER. Secondly, what do you think they're going to do if you're using my ID, yet I'm standing next to you?"

James did a few quick mental calculations, and his ears resumed their droop. "Could you at least loosen these things, they're digging into my arms!" Mirri pushed him forward through the door without responding. The guard at the far end of the reactors hallways finally said what everyone who had seen them must have been thinking. "What the hell is going on?" Mirri calmly removed her helmet and smiled at the guard. "I've captured an escaped lab experiment. HQ told me to take him to the reactor and wait for Turks to take him off my hands."

The man relaxed slightly and stopped fidgeting with his hands as if he had intended to go for his gun. He sill looked suspicious however. "Why would Shinra want you to take a lab experiment to a reactor to wait for pickup?" Mirri shrugged, a universal sign of helplessness against Shinra's endless red tape.

"Most likely because if there was any place where we wouldn't have to worry about him getting away it would be in a reactor. I'll go notify the rest of the guard if you don't mind?" Mirri's tone of voice made it quite clear that it was not a question. She was a first class SOLDIER talking to a guard, if she told him to jump he would jump. The man nodded and Mirri lead James past him.

As she walked past, Mirri calmly removed the black gloves that came with the blue uniform. Beneath them where a pair of white gloves, with one very different design feature. A feature that Mirri promptly implemented.

She calmly curled her hands into fists, her thumb touching a small portion of the gloves' fabric. Almost instantly metallic blades shot from slits above her knuckles, one for each digit. It was cool, calm, and totally precise.

Her left hand plunged forward driving 5 blades into the guard's chest. At the same time her right hand struck, and five blades slashed through the man's throat. Mirri smiled to herself, just like riding a bicycle: some things you never forget.

James was by that point looking at Mirri in a manner that suggested her behavior was bordering on cruelty to animals. With one quick slash the binders broke apart, and with a very careful maneuver Mirri sliced them apart vertically as well without scratching James arms. With that done Mirri quickly began to disrobe.

She kicked off the heavy Shinra boots to reveal her own white ones. She almost tore off the top of the uniform revealing her white bodysuit, and finally pulled down and stepped out of the lower half of the uniform revealing her long black pants. She let out a satisfied snarl looking at the pieces of the uniform she was no longer in. "That thing must have been designed to double as a survival gear in case of a gas attack. If I never wear that bulky thing again it will be too soon."

While Mirri was busy un-encumbering herself James had calmly taken the fallen guard's assault rifle and flipped off the safety. The door opened and two guards walked through, expecting to see their partner leaning against the wall bored. What they did not expect to see was their partner lying decapitated on the ground. They went for their guns, but James already had his, and was pointed in their general direction.

The two men fell backwards, their bodies perforated by several of Shinra's own armor-piercing bullets. If James was at all put out by his act then he gave no sign of it. If anything he looked expectant, as if guessing but not quite sure if he had solved a particularly hard question his schoolteacher had given him. "How was that Mirri?" Mirri took care to tread on the dead bodies as she walked across them, with James following in tow. "Well I'd have to say, Firecat 2, idiots 0."

James' eyes now finally did sparkle with the happiness of one who has pleased his betters. He tossed aside his spent gun, and took both of the guards' to replace it. Mirri calmly pulled out a small card, and ran it through a slot by the elevator the guards had been supposed to watch.

A green light came on and the door opened with a metallic chime. Mirri walked in and James followed slightly hesitantly as if unsure of the safety of the device. Mirri made one small gesture beckoning James onward and he darted through the door to instantly be at Mirri's side. "I can't believe it's finally time to get the ball rolling. I'm finally gonna be a Seraphim!"

Mirri nodded, as she kept a careful eye on the descending number by the elevators door. "There are going to be two of them outside the elevator. One to the left, one to the right, I'll take the one on the right." Then as an afterthought. "You take the one on the left." Mirri knew that sometimes you could never be too careful with clearly spelling out information for James.

Even if James had already grasped the point, he wasn't the kind to be easily offended. Not that Mirri cared at the moment, feelings came after the mission, not before and certainly not during. With another metallic chime the door opened, and Mirri and James both jumped out, almost in perfect coordination.

Mirri spilled the guard's guts out with a single horizontal slash with her right hand. James on the other hand (he was wearing both of the assault riffles around his chest on straps that the guards had possessed) quickly grabbed the guard's gun. Then with a quick twist he brought the guards gun back, up against his throat. One "CRACK" later James let go of the dieing guard, and quickly checked to make sure that Mirri was okay.

She was of course, and made a quick hand gesture, pointing to the railing of the platform they now stood on. James may not have been much for verbal instructions, but he did have a fairly good understanding of most military sign language (mainly because Mirri had spent a couple dozen hours training him at it) and nodded his assent.

He tossed the gun he held in his hands to the ground, got a running start, jumped landed on the railing balancing there for a moment. Then he threw his body forward again, twisting over in mid air as he fell. Thus he landed in a manner that was most uncatlike, his back against the metal catwalk.

However, what James' jump lacked in grace, it made up for tactical advantage. A human sized robot stood at either end of the catwalk James had just landed in the middle of, and their heat sensors knew he was there. Still lying on his back he grabbed a gun with his left hand, brought it up and fired into the robot directly in front of him. Sparks danced across the robot as James' bullets tore its internal circuitry to shreds. As the robot behind James began to open up with its sentry gun, James pushed off with his right elbow.

He rolled to the left, sending bullets ricocheting off the metal floor where he had lain just a few moments before. Then he finally managed to get his feet under him, and he pushed himself off the ground and into a back flip, in which he spun around, firing before he hit the ground. He didn't stop till the gun he held in his left hand went dry.

The other robot now sparked, and tried to fire more rounds at James, however the damage to its internal machinery was too great. In the end it did not shut down all at once like its partner, but slowly lights all along it went dark until it was just a hunk of scrap metal. James tossed his spent gun off the catwalk into the bottomless pool of neon-green liquid below him.

He then allowed himself a well-earned smirk. "It's all clear down here Mirri, but I need another gun!" A few moments Mirri arrived after carefully climbing down a ladder, the gun and strap possessed by the guard she had killed outside the elevator in her hands. As she stepped onto the catwalk she tossed it to James who slung it over his one bare shoulder. Mirri managed to slip past James on the catwalk and once again the way deeper into the belly of the reactor. In the end it was a rather moot point.

Once they went under the threshold of this door they entered a large platform suspended above more of the neon-green liquid. On the platform, his backs to James and Mirri, a man in a white lab coat typed away at a control panel. He must have herd James and Mirri's entrance because he turned, and started to let out a scream.

It died halfway through however, Mirri raised her right glove, and clenched her fist again. The five blades in it launched from it and took the man in the chest. He staggered against the railing, and then went over. His body made a rather remarkable "SPLASH" as it hit the surface of the neon-green liquid.

James' ears perked up slightly as Mirri walked towards the control panel. "Nice shot Mirri, or is that 'shots,' cause I'm not quite sure..." Mirri shrugged as she pulled out a small metal box with wires coming from it. However, before she could begin attaching it to the control panel, a very loud mechanical sound filled the air. A moment later there was yet another one.

The source of this sound was revealed as a mechanical scorpion that had apparently been hanging from the ceiling dropped to the floor. It was easily 20 feet tall, and it 'danced' back and forth on four metallic legs, its tail hovering slightly above its body. James' ears drooped practically down to his shoulders.

"Umm Mirri, how am I supposed to kill this thing? I don't think my gun is going to do much good." Mirri instantly returned the metallic box to her pocket and loaded new blades into her right glove. "James, go for the top of the thing, I'll keep it busy down here!" James nodded, and suddenly darted towards the metallic scorpion. Its tail darted forward, trying to drive its metallic barbed point through James body.

James was apparently expecting the mechanical monstrosity to do just that and reacted accordingly. He twisted to the side, and made a small jump, landing just on top of the barbed tail. The tail suddenly sprung upward, and James dropped to his feet, and warped his arms and legs around the tail.

Mirri meanwhile dashed at the scorpion, blades in both of her gloves. With no fear of being stepped on by one of the monsters mechanical legs, she danced between the legs, slashing as she went.

Even if her blades could not cut through the metallic legs the way they did flesh, she left marks with each strike. The scorpion's tail meanwhile was busy attempting to dislodge James, who was hanging onto the tail like his life depended on it. Thus, without its tail to stab at Mirri, the only thing it could do was try to step on her, attempts that Mirri laughed off.

James slowly began to pull himself farther up the waving tail, his eyes hopelessly trying to scan the top of the thing, while his perch waved him back and forth. Mirri meanwhile was still slashing beneath the dancing legs adding even more nicks to the legs, and the nicks were growing deeper. James finally managed to get far enough up the tail, to get a view of the scorpion's body.

James carefully drew his guns, holding onto the tail with only his legs. Then as it waved back and forth again, James let go with his legs. He landed on top of the scorpion's body, and pressed his guns to the very middle of the scorpion's body. He held onto his the triggers, draining both guns completely.

Even that was not enough in the end; the scorpion slowly brought its tail forward, to kill James. Thankfully James did the one thing he had been trained to do in this kind of situation, get out of the way. He did it rather spectacularly this time, by rolling from the scorpion, and this time he managed to land on his feet after the 15-foot fall.

At the same time Mirri danced out from under the legs, while the tail, which was apparently unable to stop on its present course, drove itself through the scorpion's own body. The barbed tail was apparently designed of an even harder material than the scorpion amour.

The resulting electric surge, caused the scorpion to topple to the ground, on the three legs it had left. James looked at it, and his ears went down again. "So um, did I kill that one, or did you? Or did it kill itself?" Mirri shrugged and took a moment to fire off the blades in both of her gloves into the huge pile of scrap metal.

Then she pulled out the small metallic box again, and once again turned towards the control panel. She placed it on top of the panel and began to push a few small buttons. A few moments later, a screen lit up, with red numbers counting down. "10:00" "9:59" "9:58" Mirri nodded to herself and turned back to James. "Okay then, let's makes tracks, we have 9 minutes to get out of this place."

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James and Mirri dashed out of the building and Mirri checked her watch. "Not bad James, we have two minutes till this thing is so much scrap metal." James beamed under Mirri's compliments.

"Does that mean that I get a…?" In response to his question Mirri calmly reached out and scratched James behind the ears. A deep purr emanated from James' throat.

OWAN: re-submitted to fix scene-break problems, spelling, and grammar. I was really sloppy the first time around.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter two: Should five percent seem to small, be grateful I don't take it all, because I'm the tax man.

Getting back to Sector Seven was easy, with everyone trying to figure what had happened to the reactor even James didn't draw too much attention. Sephiroth had been pleased with the results, and thus concluded James' first combat mission. "So we got away with it?" Sephiroth silenced, or at least subdued James with a quick hand gesture. He then gestured to Mirri to continue her explanation. "If Shinra had any backups for the video records they where stored inside the reactor, and went up with it. Typical Shinra, no sense of building redundancy into the system. I've got plenty of explosives left, should we make another night run?"

Sephiroth crossed his arms and glared at James. "That depends; did you get what I asked you to get for James?" Mirri pulled out a small object that looked like a wallet, and tossed it to James who caught it. "One fake ID. Or maybe 'fake' isn't the right word. It's a real ID. I scanned James eyes with a portable scanner, then I used that data to make an ID. Same way normal ID's are made; I just didn't have him present at the occasions. So now 'James Lufkin' can ride the rails just like anyone else. Oh, and I got the other thing too."

A moment later Mirri calmly walked over to a bookshelf, and removed a wide brimmed red hat. Without further ado she half placed, half slammed the hat on top of James' head, hiding his ears. James felt the hat and adjusted it some before nodding and giving a smile to Mirri. "Thanks Mirri! It's my favorite color, how'd you guess?"

Mirri shrugged, and Sephiroth's eyes slowly went to a black sheath lying in a corner of the room. "I'm going with you this time; we're going after the sector five reactor. With two reactors off line Shinra might realize that we mean business." As he spoke Sephiroth stood up, walked over to the black sheath, and strapped it to his back.

The thing was almost as long, if not longer than he was tall and Sephiroth had to wear it at a slant. Mirri was unable to hide a small smile at this announcement. "Well then, I guess the Angel of Death rides once again." For response, all she got was a nod.

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It was an odd experience for James, for once in his life (not that he had lived that long) people didn't seem to be paying any sort of attention to him. Instead the eyes of those on the train where focused on Sephiroth. Something about a man in black with silver hair hanging down to his waist just drew peoples' attention.

Meanwhile James (with his hat on) could pass for a perfectly ordinary person, with red eyes and hair. However it seemed to James that no sooner had they gotten onto the train, then Sephiroth was suddenly giving more directions to Mirri. Something which James was easily able to overhear, given the size and acuity of his ears. "Listen up Mirri, I want you to make a distraction. Stop this train any way you care, just don't start having sex with anyone. Anything else is acceptable."

James ears suddenly went back and forth with great speed. A moment later, Mirri very calmly gave James a very intense kiss. This was followed by a well placed tip back of the hat, revealing James ears. A moment later, someone saw James ears, and hit a alarm button, causing red lights to flash all over the train. Sephiroth yanked Mirri off of James, but she just shot him a demonically innocent smile.

Sephiroth didn't have time to argue with her. "Keep moving, we need to get to the front of the train before it gets sealed off." Mirri calmly tilted James' hat back over his ears, (not particularly trusting James to do it for himself) and then the three of them were racing along the train, Sephiroth easily keeping people out of the way.

When they reached the front train compartment, Sephiroth unsheathed his blade. With one slash of Masamune, Sephiroth took the train's door off its hinges. Then, with no regard for the rapidly moving train, he jumped out. A moment later Mirri jumped out, and James after a moment of applying his traditional thought process (Mirri does something, Mirri doesn't tell James not to do same, James should do same) he jumped out.

James landed on his feet, but was unable to successfully transfer the force of the landing to his les, and tripped. His hands shot out to brace him, and James got bruises on those too. Thankfully, in keeping with the traditional rule of people with Jenova cells, James got over bruises very quickly.

Mirri was about 50 feet down the subway and Sephiroth 10 feet to the left of her. James was quickly by Mirri's side, at about the same time as Sephiroth, regardless of the difference between distances. "In case you weren't listening Catwarrior, I said you couldn't have sex with him."

Mirri just gave Sephiroth an innocent smile, and almost batted her lashes. "I wasn't having sex with him; if you had spent any time studying the opposite sex like I have you would know that kind of thing. I was making out with James. Making out can seem similar to having sex, but isn't. Making out involves only the upper body parts.

Thus, it is an act of mutual affection completely independent of the people partaking of its' sex. In fact my personal study of the male race indicates that much of their otherwise perfectly useful brain space is cluttered with thoughts of two women making out. So why did you want to blow our perfectly stealthy entrance?"

It had been five years since Sephiroth had worked with Mirri, and he had forgotten her more eccentric tendencies. She could frequently make it sound as if she was writing her collage thesis on the behavior of men.

He pushed that aside and glared at Mirri, instantly causing her to snap to complete attention. "It's called the margin of human error. No reason to let Shinra know just how good we are at what we do, let's make it look like we wouldn't have passed the train's ID check. It'll lull them into a false sense of security. From this subway we should have no trouble finding a way into the sector five reactor. Just keep away from the rails unless you want some major shock therapy."

That last sentence was directed at James who was busy retrieving his hat (having it blown off his head when he jumped out of the train) he slammed the hat back over his ears, spun around and saluted. "YES SIR! As Chief Reconnaissance Officer, I will do my utmost to try and find a way into the reactor!"

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"This is all you could find?" James looked back at the small vent, and then back at Mirri, the hat lowering slightly as his ears drooped underneath it. "Yeah, sorry. The military supply train entrance is guarded by a laser fence, and it's passcode activated, so we can't use it. But if I remember my Midgar design correctly, this vent should take us into the reactor. It's normally used for repair men so they don't have to go past a dozen military checkpoints. Of course due to the design of the thing, it can only be used to enter, we're still going to have to shoot our way out."

Then as if not quite sure what to do next, James crossed him arms in a mock version of Sephiroth's "Don't argue with me" pose. "Sorry guys, it's the best I could do on short notice, but I'll go first in my duties as reconnaissance officer!" Hearing no countermanding order from either of his two superiors James began to climb into the vent.

Just before he shoved off however Mirri provided him with some sage advice. "Hold onto your hat." James nodded and pushed off. A moment later his entire world became a metal cylinder that he was very rapidly plummeting through.

Heeding Mirri's advice as always he kept both hands on his hat, and then as an afterthought, pulled its brim down over his eyes. There was a prolonged sense of near weightlessness, large bump, several smaller ones, and then another large one.

He finally opened his eyes, and removed his hat from his field of vision. He was laying all limbs akimbo on a hard metal floor, and there was a guard in the room. He had come reasonably close to inspect James, and in removing his hat so he could see the guard, the guard saw James' ears.

In the brief moment of surprise before training could take over James acted. He grabbed the man's legs and yanked them out from under him, causing the man's arms to flail widely. James twisted on the floor rolling farther along the guard's body and struck. James's feet slammed into the guard's unprotected throat, smashing his voice box and airway. Then with complete professionalism James took the guard's rifle, and emptied a short burst into its previous owner's chest, just to be sure.

A few moments later James heard another series of thumps echoing from the same ventilation shaft he had come in through. James didn't have to think twice about what to do, he didn't even think once. He slung the rifle over his shoulder, and looked away. Several more moments later he finally turned around and found Mirri slightly ruffled in body but not in spirit.

She looked at the dead guard and nodded slowly. "That'll do Firecat, that'll do." Another series of thumps began emanating from the ventilation shaft. James and Mirri both looked away.

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By the time Sephiroth had gotten himself fully together, James had already found the next device he was looking for. It was a long piece of tubing that was apparently also for engineers only. It had several hand holds along the roof of it to allow someone to climb down it safely, but since when did James Firecat have a need for safety?

"See you guys at the reactor control terminal... WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" James shot down the shaft sliding down it rather than climbing down it, and doing it with one hand in order to maintain his grip on his hat. To judge from the lack of an overly loud "THUMP" James must have come to a fairly soft landing even if his descent could not have made more noise without an armored battalion in tow.

Mirri and Sephiroth looked at each other, and Mirri finally managed to summon words for the situation. "So are you going to follow him next, or am I?" Sephiroth transferred his indignation at James' antics to Mirri. "To inspire others to follow you must lead the way, I'll go next." Sephiroth slid into the tube and grabbed the first hand hold before starting to work his way down.

He made quick progress, quick enough progress to see the end of James' work. James stood on the center of the platform with several Shinra guard robots on it as well. Most of them were already smoking wrecks but one of the badly sparking robots was still powerful enough to function, and raised its gun to fire at James.

James was apparently out of bullets because he didn't even go for his gun. He simply dogged the things erratic fire, and then proceeded to knock the robot sentry of the platform with a little well applied pressure.

A moment later another robot guard, this one still fully operational, entered the platform from outside the control room. It was an old model, Sephiroth could tell by the fact that instead of having guns built into its arms, it was actually carrying two automatic rifles.

Before it could fire a single shot, James spun around, and leapt at the robot, and landed directly between its raised hands. The robot was slow, it would need time to adjust its bulky arms to allow it to fire at something between them. James did not give it that time. He pivoted slightly and drove his red sneaker through the very center of the robots body. Sparks played across it, and it fell backwards as James took a moment to take the robots weaponry as it no longer needed it.

Sephiroth felt something tap him from behind and looked up to see that Mirri had caught up with him and was waiting for him to get out of her way so she could proceed. Sephiroth shot an irritated glare at her, but followed her unvoiced request and dropped from the shaft and Mirri followed on his heels (almost literarily) to land on the platform.

James spun around and gave them both a thumbs up as he strapped the rifles over his shoulders. "Okay, this area is clear, its demolitions time." Mirri instantly responded by reaching into one of her many pockets and pulling out a small box. She attached it to the panel and bent over it carefully so neither Sephiroth or James could see what she was doing.

Once she was satisfied with the results of her work, she turned back to her two male partners and nodded her satisfaction with the situation. "We're all set." Sephiroth pointed back to the shaft that they had entered through and no actual orders were needed.

The piece of tubing was too high for a normal person to have been able to jump back into it, but none of the three present qualified as normal people. James jumped twice his own height to get back into the shaft, grab onto a hand hold and began to shoot up the shaft with a touch of inhuman speed.

Mirri and Sephiroth followed not far behind though neither of them needed to spur James on to greater speed at any point because they needed to pass him. Once they had returned to the passageway through which they had entered, Sephiroth didn't need James to point the way out. He pulled out a small silver card and ran it through a slot by the door.

After a few moments of beeping the light turned green and the door finally slid open, Sephiroth was through it in an instant, Mirri and James trailing not far behind. Sephiroth allowed himself a small smile as rooms flew by him, and then turned a corner coming face to face with a guard over a catwalk. Masamune went from Sephiroth's sheath to his hands in the blink of an eye.

Then with one swift movement Sephiroth sliced the guard's weapon in half, before he separated the guards head from his neck. It was a slice so perfect that no blood stained his blade, and, its purpose served, he returned Masamune to its sheath.

That's when he heard it coming from directly behind him. Clapping. He spun around, and saw three first class SOLDIERS all with blades. Mirri and James faced them, both of them emitting an aura of supreme confidence, regardless of the odds. However it was the man standing behind the SOLDIERS that drew Sephiroth's eyes. "Splendid, splendid, but then I must guess that you are the real Sephiroth."

Sephiroth's hand stayed steady as another three first class SOLDIERS entered the room taking the place of the single guard he had cut down. President Shinra's smile only broadened. "I decided to come here personally, and see what mice my trap would catch. You should have known that I would have mobilized a force to respond instantly to any and all threats after you destroyed a reactor. But then here you are, a traitor, an escaped science project, and you. So tell me Sephiroth, what part do you play in all this?"

Sephiroth's face was a mask of iron, and his hand made no movements towards his blade. "I'm here to put an end to all of this Shinra. I know just how much you've bloodied your hands, both with that of others and of the Planet itself." President Shinra just laughed at his response.

"You always did take everything seriously, Ex-General Sephiroth. However I would have expected something better from you, I already have people sent to disarm your bomb." "It won't go off for another five minutes which is plenty of time." The reaction to that statement came not from Sephiroth, but from Mirri.

As she spoke she reached into her pants and pulled out a small box. "Ohh my, was I suppose to use another 10 minute bomb? How foolish of me, I used one of those special ones instead. How could I possibly plant one of those bombs that you made just for building demolition?

You know Mr. President, the ones with remote detonators? The kind that automatically exploded if anyone tampers with them after they've been set? You don't have five minuets, you could have one, or you could have 5 hours. It all depends on when I push this button, or your men get to work. So why don't you call off your guards, or my finger just might slip."

"Absurd!" "Oh really? What, pray tell, do I have to live for? A few hours in a cell before an execution? On the other hand, I'm a Seraphim, we're notoriously hard to kill from anything not specifically designed to kill us. So we just might survive the blast, you're pure human, you'll be fried to a crisp before you end up in the lake of fire. Now if I was you I would be getting out of here right this instant."

Beads of sweat rolled down the president's face as he took a step backwards, and snapped his fingers. In the same instant two things happened, a helicopter entered through the reactors glass skylight, and a huge mechanical monster rolled into the room from the other side of the T the catwalk made.

The helicopter came in low, and President Shinra jumped for it, just as James and Mirri jumped for his guards. Mirri came through, her gloves instantly sprouting blades, which she pitted against the SOLDIERS swords. Those swords where of the traditional Shinra make, heavy, not so much long as wide, almost axes.

Mirri easily cut past the three men, dodging to the side of the last one. While they turned to follow Mirri, James opened up on them with his guns. First Class SOLDIERS don't die easily from gunshot wounds, but they are hardly immortal. The storm of lead took their feet out from under them, and the second burst blew their heads apart. President Shinra just barely managed to get behind the helicopters armored doors before Mirri's blades reached him.

The other three first class SOLDIERS tried to jump Sephiroth while he was looking the other way. It was the last mistake they would ever make. Sephiroth spun around, and drew Masamune again. The SOLDIERS had increased speed due to their enhancements, but they where overmatched in body and in weapon.

Sephiroth blocked the first blade slash, and then forced the man to drop his blade. Sephiroth cut him in half at the navel. Then he turned, and drove Masamune through the face of the second SOLDIER, killing him. Sephiroth pulled his blade out, rolled to the side of the final SOLDIER's slice, and as he rose to his feet drove his blade upward. It cut the man in half vertically starting with the legs, and ending with his head. That left only the mechanical monster which was slowly lumbering towards him.

He danced backwards, and it continued onwards towards him. Mirri loaded new blades into her gloves, as James pulled out new clips for his guns and chambered them. Facing the huge thing from the front, Sephiroth yelled out orders (though his voice was perfectly calm) to the other two. "DISTRACT THAT THING. IT'S BACK CAN'T BE AS HEAVILY ARMOURED AS ITS FRONT. GIVE ME ONE GOOD SHOT AND I'LL TAKE IT DOWN!"

As he spoke a panel folded open on the monsters front and a gatling gun popped out. Any other man would have been shredded on that tight catwalk against such a weapon. Sephiroth stood his ground, and raised Masamune before him. He swung the blade in a quick figure eight as the bullets came for him, and the small deadly shots bounced harmlessly off Masamune.

A few bullets hit Sephiroth, but he didn't bleed. The mechanical monster apparently began connecting another belt of ammo to the gun inside itself, but at that point it became aware of another problem. James was spraying both of his guns almost blindly (as it was sort of a hard target to miss) into the things back while Mirri fired off her blades with complete precision trying to get them stuck in the gears.

The thing slowly began to rotate, pointing its gun at James and Mirri. However Mirri still had one blade left in her right glove. She aimed and fired, and it was a perfect hit. The blade slammed through the middle of the weapons barrel (or between the barrels in this case) and stuck there.

The gatling gun fired one measly shot before it realized that it was unable to spin its barrels any more, and thus unable to fire. It began to emit noises as if about to reveal some new weapon, however that's when Sephiroth struck.

He drove Masamune through the thing's weak back amour in one perfect thrust, its blade emerging from the thing front. Sparks began to crisscross along the machine, and Sephiroth tried to pull Masamune out of it, but apparently his sword has meshed with some gears inside the thing. More and more sparks arced along the thing, but Sephiroth's face maintained the stony composition of a determined man who had faced death before. "Get out of here now, you two!"

A moment later, James and Mirri dashed past the machine. However both of them turned to look at Sephiroth as he hopelessly tried to extricate his weapon from the beast it had slain. "Can't you just leave it behind?" Sephiroth returned James' innocent question with a glare so cold that got even James to flinch.

"No, I'm not going to lose Masamune that easily. You two get out of here, I'll be fine, wait for me back at the place, and Mirri, in 10 minutes, blow this place to hell." James and Mirri both saluted, and then dashed around the corner.

Sephiroth stared up the machine's whose rapidly increasing sparks clearly showed it would soon be exploding. "Go ahead and do your worst you tin bastard. I'll get Masamune out of you if I have to reduce you to scrap metal with my bare hands." The explosion ripped the catwalk to shreds.

End chapter two


	3. Chapter 3

FN (Firecat Note): I'm glad to see that some people are actually reading my piece and liking it. If you do like it you should probably visit http/www.jamesfirecat. and http/ which detail the other adventures of James Firecat and Mirri Catwarrior, the blogspot account came first so you should visit it first, start from the first post and work your way forward.

OWAN(One-Winged-Angel Note): This is, essentially, the Firecat's take on FF7. I served in a support role, identifying and replacing unusable story elements, as well as suggesting a few of the jokes. Most of the credit still goes to the happy psycho.

Chapter three: Look out for the beautiful ones, they'll twist your head right off your neck, and laugh about it with their friends.

Mirri was willing to guess that Shinra would have her ID invalidated so that she couldn't ride through a checkpoint. Sadly Mirri was not the type to be put out by anything as simple as getting her ID invalidated. James' ID of course would still be valid, as Shinra had no idea that he even had one.

So Mirri did the exact same thing James had done with her one their ride to the sector one reactor, she hitched a ride. In this case that meant Mirri lay flat on top of the train, her blades dug into the train's metallic body. It was the kind of thing Mirri would do without a second thought if it let her beat the odds. So the end result was that James was on the inside, wishing he his place was reversed with Mirri, and Mirri was outside, quite happy with her position.

When they finally got to Sector Seven, Mirri slid down and landed next to James as he was stepping out of the train. Mirri confidently lead the way back to her house, where James collapsed totally exhausted (an incredibly rare state for him) into a chair. "Man... I can't believe Seph is... well..."

Mirri cut him off without even a flicker of hesitation. "Don't even think about it James. Trust me when I say that he's still alive. I've seen him shot, stabbed, blasted, burnt, electrocuted, and numerous other things, and come through all of them just fine. Nine lives? Try ninety. He'll be back, and he'll be carrying his sword with him. Our job isn't to go looking for him; it's to find out everything we can in his absence."

James' hat rose up slightly as his ears perked up. "I guess work is healthy for the soul, and I'm Chief Reconnaissance Officer, It's my job to find things out! So where do you want me to look?" Mirri's face slid into the confident smirk it was so used to showing. "Actually James, I'm going to have to do this one on my own."

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Get up... GET UP. GET THE HELL UP! I'M NOT THIS WEAK! I SHOULD BE OKAY! OKAY! Sephiroth forced his eyes open and found a pair of green eyes looking at him. He shook his head, and focused the world around him; the eyes didn't have any mako glow so it wasn't Mirri. "Are you okay?" The voice repeated the question a few moments later, it was clearly female Sephiroth noted.

He shook his head one last time, and the entire world finally came into focus. He was lying on something, and he managed to better define the women he was looking at. She had green eyes, and brown hair like Mirri, but their similarity ended with the color.

The green eyes where completely devoid of Mirri's familiar, maleficent glint. Also, the brown hair had a slightly reddish tint. The girl was wearing a pink dress underneath a red traveling jacket; Mirri wouldn't be caught dead in something pink, unless you counted red blood splattered on white clothing.

Sephiroth leaned backwards on his elbows starting to push himself up. "I'm fine. Just a little scratched up. Where's my sword?" The girl looked to the side of whatever Sephiroth was leaning on and nodded slightly. "It landed on the floor, you should be lucky you didn't also. If you hadn't landed in my flower bed whatever injuries you would have sustained would have been a lot worse."

Sephiroth's mind was slowly coming back into focus. But that last line made no sense. Flowers he was familiar with, and he understood the concept of a flower bed, but he was in Lower Midgar. The plate that separated Upper Midgar from Lower Midgar blocked off almost all light to Lower Midgar. Because there was no light, almost no plant life grew in Lower Midgar, and the little there was were weeds. Sephiroth forced himself to fully stand up and looked down at the floor.

He could see Masamune lying on the floor, unsheathed, but then he had his sheath strapped on his back. He picked up Masamune, returned it to its sheath. Once he had done that he allowed himself to take a look around and check his surroundings. A quick check confirmed that he was in some sort of church turned greenhouse, or at least his guess by the pews, and the multiple flowerbeds.

"I can't believe that you can use that thing. I felt it, and it felt like it must weigh around two hundred pounds." Sephiroth turned back to the girl and slowly checked his body, a couple of bruises, nothing serious. "I've always been special. I heal quickly, for one thing. Where am I?"

The girl looked Sephiroth up and down slowly as if wondering just how great an understatement he was making. "You're in the Sector Five church. You fell in through the ceiling about five minutes ago. Frankly I'm amazed you're even alive." Having Masamune's' weight on his shoulders made him feel balanced again. "Frankly I'm amazed that you can grow flowers down here. No sunlight, soil gives the word 'dirt' a bad name. Hell, just finding seeds must be a task and a half."

The girl looked him up and down, as if suddenly finding something in him that she hadn't seen or even expected before. "Excuse me. I'm Aeris Gainsborough, I sell flowers for a living. You are?" Sephiroth took a moment to do some mental calculations about how he could get back to sector seven from sector five without using a train. Eventually however he got around to answering Aeris' question. "I'm General Sephiroth, formerly of Shinra."

It was one of those moments where people were less likely to believe the truth than any lie. Aeris could believe whatever she wanted to, Sephiroth was going to walk out of this church, and the Planet help whoever got in his way. Thus it was a very unfortunately that just as he was about to slide past Aeris, the three men entered.

One wore a blue business suit, and the other two wore standard blue Shinra guard suits. The man in the blue suit, (which by the way looked like the man had not only slept in it, but eaten in it, vomited on it, and spilled beer on it while getting drunk) had red hair and sparkling green eyes. His hair was tied back in an untidy pony tail, and he had a pair of black sunglasses tilted over his hair like pilot's goggles.

He looked at the two guards, and then at Aeris and Sephiroth, his stance possibly even less formals than James'. "Hey Aeris. Boss wants you to come meet him at the office, he would have come for you himself, but he had other things to take care of." Aeris however took a step away from the man, and picked up a staff that she had balanced against one of the flower beds. "Listen, Sephiroth, I need your help, this guy is a-" Sephiroth stepped past Aeris and finished her sentence.

"Turk. Part of Shinra's research and development. Or at least that's what they call it, in actuality they're the men Shinra use whenever they need to do something truly base. Don't worry, I'll take care of them as a matter of principle. Reno, I suggest you get out of my sight now or else you'll be 'drinking' your next beer through an IV line." Reno (the red haired man in the blue suit which hadn't been cared for) shrugged as he looked Sephiroth up and down.

"Sephiroth, here I thought you where dead. While you offer an interesting proposal, I've got another one. Happy hour starts in 50 minutes. That's just enough time for me to kick your ass, drag you both back to HQ, and grab a train to Sector Six. I mean I can hardly afford to give up without trying."

A moment later Reno removed a small metallic nightstick from a hip holster and pushed a notch on it up to the "active" position. In response, electricity began to flow along it. "Fight fire with fire. Fight lightning with thunder." Sephiroth raised his hands and bolts of lightning raced from them. Both guards flew against the wall, lightning racing across their bodies.

With that Sephiroth turned back to Aeris. "Get out of here, I'll keep them busy for now." A moment later Sephiroth turned around, just as Reno rushed at him. Sephiroth twisted aside dodging the nightstick, and drew Masamune. Sadly Reno apparently knew just as well that Sephiroth did that Sephiroth couldn't block the nightstick with his blade without getting a hefty electric shock. So instead Sephiroth had to dodge to the left and right, and while he did so, he came up a plan.

He returned Masamune to its sheath, and jumped over one of the flower gardens to dodge another of Reno's strikes. Then when Reno tried to come at him around the left of the thing, Sephiroth tipped the entire container over on him. It most likely wouldn't kill him, but between struggling out of all the dirt, busting the wooden container and finally pulling himself out it would keep him busy for quite a while. He then turned and rushed through the door that Aeris had gone through, it lead to some kind of superstructure.

Struts lead everywhere, and directly in front of him, one of the struts had snapped creating a gap, and Aeris was barely hanging onto the far side. Sephiroth didn't have to ask questions, he got a running start, easily cleared the gap, and then thrust his hand towards Aeris. Aeris gratefully took it though her hands were sweaty from holding on. Sephiroth rectified that problem by letting go of her hand and grabbing her by the wrist before pulling her over his shoulder.

He then part tossed, part laid her down on the solid strut behind him as he stood up. "Thanks." Aeris gasped the word out laying flat out her chest rising up and down very quickly. Sephiroth calmly stept/leapt over her body taking a moment to scan how they could get out of this place form his current location. "Don't thank me, it was simple tactics. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Besides for the moment our paths happened to be aimed in the same direction."

Aeris caught her breath and stood back up leaning on her staff. "Well thanks all the same. My house isn't far from here would you...?" Sephiroth answered without a moment of hesitation. "I don't leave things half done. I suggest you hire a full time bodyguard, as of tomorrow morning I'm out of your life. It wouldn't even be that long, but it's too late in the day for me to head out right away." Aeris calmly stood back up, and Sephiroth continued along the scaffolding.

----------------

"Gee Mirri, you look... different." It was the only appropriate word that came to James' mind under the circumstances. Instead of her normal bodysuit, Mirri was wearing a dress. It was black, and stopped before her knees, and only thinly covered her arms. However for some reasons she was still wearing her gloves, well James had a guess why. She was still wearing white shoes, but they where not her traditional boots, or sneakers: they where something she called "high heels" and they looked horribly uncomfortable. The new style looked okay on Mirri, but it didn't seem to fit her as well in James mind. However Mirri said that she was going to use it to do some "private research". Apparently there was some guy named Don Corneo who Shinra more or less sponsored directly to keep control of a good portion of Lower Midgar. Mirri was going to find a way to get close to him, and then make him tell her everything he knew.

That last part James understood well enough, after all he never seemed to be able to hold anything back that Mirri wanted him to tell her. Either way it was a plan that sadly meant that James couldn't stay near her during it. That is to say since James couldn't be right next to her, he would stay as close as possible in case she needed help. Granted James held that possibility as a very unlikely one.

----------------

"You're not coming in?" Sephiroth answered with one flat glare. "No. I'm not. The less you know about me the better, Shinra is already after you for something, you don't want them wanting you to get more information on me as well." Aeris' eyes widened in surprise. "But, where are you going to sleep?"

Sephiroth waved her off with one quick hand gesture. "I'm a general, not some pampered princeling. I slept with amongst my soldiers in the dirt and blood during the war. Don't worry about where I sleep, don't worry about what I do. You have enough things to worry about, without making me one of them." Aeris looked Sephiroth up and down one last time. "You really are him aren't you?"

Sephiroth's glare could have punctured stainless steel. "Did you think I'm simply some escaped mental patient?" Aeris' face flushed slightly as she looked to the ground. "Sorry, I guess it's just natural. I mean they said that you died five years ago. I mean I could tell that you're a SOLDIER, because of your eyes. I dated a SOLDIER once but he vanished without a trace or an explanation. Well I wish you luck." Sephiroth didn't even look at Aeris, he just turned his back. "Goodbye."

----------------

"So much for us never seeing each other again." Sephiroth growled leaning against the metallic tube that passed for a wall. "I blame you for even coming in here." Aeris smiled sweetly at both the occupants of the small "house". "It's sort of my job to look after him, so the question becomes, why are you here?"

Sephiroth looked at the other occupant of the room as well. "Your wasting your time, I've seen this before. No cure, no way to get better, just a sort of living death. I could kill him right now, and he would be in a much better place. Mako poisoning, it's the worst disease in the world." Aeris looked at the man dressed in a black cloak, and at the "8" tattooed on his hand. "I have to do what I can to help everyone."

Sephiroth took Masamune's sheath from where he had laid it down next to him when he went to sleep. "You don't have to do anything to help me. As far as you should be concerned, I don't exist. My name is anonymity, my language is silence, and the less you think you know about me the better... Goodbye again." He stood up to leave, but Aeris didn't step aside and in the small confines in the metallic tube turned home he couldn't step around her.

"If you want me to, I would be glad to show you how to get wherever you're going. You may be able to handle yourself on the streets, but how much do you know about getting around Lower Midgar?" Sephiroth scowled at Aeris. "I know a lot more then you realize. I grew up down here. I know all about getting around this place." "Oh yeah, how many years ago was that? Lower Midgar changes a lot over time, mainly as parts of it fall down."

Mirri would have been proud of the complete smugness with which that line was delivered. Sephiroth looked Aeris up and down one last time, maybe she wasn't quite as innocent as he thought. "If you're willing to go with me, you're likely to be throwing your life away. You may be skilled with that staff, but you're just human, you have no place fighting the SOLDIERS and monsters Shinra will throw at us." Aeris just smiled at her. "Well if everybody works together, everything will work out fine."

Sephiroth was tempted to push Aeris down and walk over her after that line. "I have more important things to do with my time then here arguing with you. If you insist on risking your life, then fine come along." Aeris just smiled at him.

----------------

27 years ago the people of the small town of Corel had gathered round to witness the birth of a girl. She had been born "Mirri Lufkin" but as she had grown up she had used various other names for herself. No child like Mirri had ever been born in the town before, or at least not for a very long time, something about her was special. Even her own parents weren't quite sure of what to make of Mirri, but they loved her anyway.

Some people didn't, there were plenty of them who said that if Mirri kept on the road she was on, she would end up selling herself in some dark alleyway. Proving those people so utterly wrong was one of Mirri's greatest sources of joy. Mainly because those people had underestimated Mirri's total self respect. Mirri would flirt with a man to get something she wanted, but she never made good on her promises. Never.

Even at 27 she was still a virgin, for the simple reason that she had yet to find a man worthy enough to be equal to her. Selling herself had no appeal what so ever to Mirri, it required the women to actually pay in solid definable coin for what she got. Flirting on the other hand put the wispy promise of something definable even with a solid coin.

Of course there had been a few people who had tried to turn those wispy promises into hard currency, but that was where the other half to Mirri came into play. Despite being a flirt she would go to the mat just as hard for what she believed in as any other human being on the Planet. Suffice to say those men who thought they could force Mirri generally limped home or where never seen again. Now as she looked up at Don Corneo, she smiled invitingly.

Of course getting the huge lug's overactive reproductive system to start up was easy, and he had chosen to personally indoctrinate Mirri into his harem. Mirri was still wearing her white gloves, however. The Don of course mistook her smile of the spider inviting the fly to dinner for one offering mutual contentment. He jumped towards Mirri where she stood at the side of the bed, and received a lighting spin kick to the head. He fell backwards and Mirri instantly had blades in her gloves and pointed at the Don's throat.

"Listen you lecherous sack of lard. My name is Mirri Catwarrior, and if you think for even a moment I'm going to actually let you touch me you're dead wrong. What you are going to do is tell me everything you know about what Shinra has been doing to deal with the two recent reactor bombings. If you give me answers I like I won't hurt you. If you try to make things difficult for me, I'll make it difficult for you to ever do what you like to do to another women. Granted I'm tempted to do that as a matter of principle so I suggest you make yourself as convincing as possible right away."

The Don started babbling instantly.

----------------

Mirri stepped out of the room and came face to face with two guards who the Don had apparently set up to make sure he wasn't distracted. Mirri smiled sweetly at them, and then easily knocked their heads together. Then she loaded blades into her gloves and descended down the stairs like Athena leaving Olympus daring anyone else to try and touch her. No one did.

----------------

Mirri found James in the bar where he was expectantly waiting for her, he hadn't even touched the cheap beer he had ordered. He jumped to attention like a dog, his face making his inquiry quite clear. "We don't have much time James, we've got to get back to Sector Seven fast. Shinra is going to release the plate and crush the entire place just to get us and a few other malcontents. Like swatting a fly with a rocket launcher, the president never did have any sense of how to deal with a small problem in a small way. We're going to stop them, and kick the crap out of whoever is doing it at the same time."

James nodded and suddenly Mirri grabbed his ear, causing him to give pause. "What is it Mirri?" Mirri glared at James, and he instantly produced a small bag and tossed it to her. Mirri caught it gratefully. "Thanks, just give me a moment to change, I'm not running to Sector Seven in these goddamn heels."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter four

Lifestyles of the Rich and the Famous.

"Get out of here, now." Aeris craned her neck the same way Sephiroth did and her brow furrowed. "I went with you through the sewer, past the train graveyard, and now you think that I'm going to be running away just because of some gunfire?" Sephiroth's own brow furrowed as his gaze turned from the gun flashes to Aeris. "If Shinra is doing what I think they're doing, then it's more dangerous then getting shot. Now if you insist on doing something to help then go warn everyone you can to get out of this entire sector, it needs to be evacuated, understand?"

Aeris fell silent and Sephiroth fixed her with a commanding glare, causing her to finally nod and go rushing off further into the sector. He didn't have luxury of time to worry about her; he practically flew up the stairs careful to jump over the bodies of the fallen guards who littered the stairway. It looked like things we're pretty well in hand so far, but he hadn't seen who had killed them yet, though he had a pretty good idea. Finally he reached the top and found James and Mirri fighting side by side.

James had apparently once again taken the guard's guns, and Sephiroth saw him shoot two more guards lethally as they jumped from a helicopter hovering above the platform. Mirri glared at the helicopter which her blades couldn't destroy and then suddenly saw Sephiroth out of the corner of her eye. "Commander, great timing! Shinra is deploying guards and SOLDIERS from that helicopter!"

As she spoke the helicopter suddenly sped up and began to pull away from the platform. James scratched his chin slowly, as if about to make a statement but afraid it would come out wrong. Finally he made it. "Well then, I guess they ran out of expendables, thanks for coming anyway Seph...iroth good to see you alive!" James broke into his own personal salute, which of course meant he was still smiling (and doing it left-handed).

Of course a moment later the helicopter spun on its axis and headed right back at the platform losing altitude as it went. All three of them stared at it, wondering if the pilot would be willing to ram the platform with his vehicle. However at the last moment it altered its course still coming in low over the platform, and a man in a blue suit jumped from it. He landed behind the three, dashed a few feet to the center pole of the platform and slammed a black box onto it.

As the three turned around he pressed a red button on the box causing it to light up with flashing numbers. Then with a pirouette like a dancer the man turned to face the group and smiled. "Shinra sets up the shotgun, Reno gets the ball, clears the defenders and slams it in the end zone, TOUCHDOWN! Shinra 20, terrorists 16, with a possible extra point if I can kick your asses in the next few minuets before I have to evac." "Reno."

It was a low growl from Mirri. There was quite a colorful relationship between the two of them, and more then a few bets had been placed on both of them over the last few years. Granted other SOLDIERS had always been on hand to intervene and nothing had ever come of it. All things considered, it wouldn't be fair to say that either of them hated each other. Reno possessed some modicum's of decency and even when he was drunk he wasn't the type to try and force himself on a women, physically at least.

Still it was a well known moment in Shinra HQ when Reno, sotaly tober would stagger up to Mirri's room and ring the doorbell. Mirri would open it and would be greeted by Reno's inebriated breath. "Hey Catwarrior, wanna have sex with me?" Mirri would look Reno up and down as if thinking that possibly he might taste fine with just the right combination of spices, and then thought better of it. "No."

She would close the door, and Reno would stagger off, or more likely fall on the floor and Mirri would step over his body when she left in the morning. Reno was in possession of the same traits that James had, except to such an extent that they where annoying instead of amusingly pathetic.

Reno flicked his nightstick on and struck a defensive stance facing his three foes. "Okay then, guy, General, and Mirri, let's dance!" Sephiroth dashed forward with Masamune, but Reno dodged to the side of the thrust. He jumped away as Mirri tried to pin him between herself and Sephiroth. Then James struck.

He snuck around the huge pillar in the center of the platform as Sephiroth charged at Reno and fired as he jumped away from Mirri. A short burst, with three bullets slamming into the side of Reno's chest. The bullets thudded harmlessly against the body amour Reno wore underneath his suit or at least without harm other then the shock it gave him.

Reno turned around and saw James steadying the gun in his right hand for another burst. He tossed himself at James and swept the nightstick upwards to knock the gun from his hand. He succeeded and the gun went spinning over the edge of the platform and an electric shock went through the right half of James' body. Even as he went down on one knee, his left hand shifted position and he smiled.

"TASTE SOUTHPAW VENGEANCE RIGHTY!" James pulled down the trigger and emptied a thirty round burst into Reno's chest with the barrel almost touching him. Turk body amour is good stuff, designed to take a beating and yet still be flexible. However it was also designed to fit under a suit instead of the body amour guards wore that lined their heavy blue outfits.

At least three bullets slammed through Reno's chest and the impact pushed him backwards though he hung onto his nightstick. It might have been a lethal wound to someone without Jenova cells and mako enhancements, but Reno had both, so it was only about as bad as a flesh wound on a normal person. He managed to steady himself against a railing as Mirri and Sephiroth moved in while James loaded another clip into his gun. "What a sinister trick! Under-handed..." The remainder of the comment was cut off as James chambered a new round and stood back up.

"You can say whatever you want about my mind, but don't you dare insult the hand I favor! Just 'cause it's different doesn't make it inferior!" _OWAN: James harps on this several times throughout this fic, bear with him, he's a proud leftie. I'll curtail it wherever I can_ Reno rolled his eyes. "Listen, much fun as it's been, I have to be going." With that he part climbed over, part leapt over the railing.

A few moments the helicopter came back into view from below the platform, Reno waving to the group. A moment later Reno was yanked out of sight and another man in a blue suit took his place. He had long black hair tied into a neat pony tail, and his face was all business. "Sephiroth, so you actually are alive, part of me though that Reno might have just gotten drunk and decided you where a convenient excuse. It would be more believable then some of the things he's told me." "Tseng."

It was a stone cold statement with no malice or other emotion. Tseng nodded. "I believe I have something that I should show you before you die." He moved to the side, and a moment later, he pulled Aeris into sight. Another low growl came from deep in Sephiroth's throat. "Tseng, taking hostages? That's low even for you."

Tseng looked Sephiroth up and down once and then let out a low sarcastic laugh. "You don't know? You honestly don't know! Shinra wants this girl because she's a Cetra!"

Sephiroth froze, the flowers, being able to grow flowers in Lower Midgar, he should have known. "By the way, that's not a bomb, it's a remote access terminal. The President has used it to access the pillar and has activated the plate released system. Only the president's password could deactivate it, and any password other than it, will instantly release the plate. No way to deactivate it. I'm sorry Sephiroth, you deserved a better death than this, you deserved to die in battle. But, most people already think you already have, and orders are orders."

A moment later Reno forced his way back into view. "By the way Mirri, if you could, save a stalagmite for me in the land of fire and brimstone!" A moment later Tseng pushed Reno out of view. "Well you've got about a minute left to live, goodbye." With that the helicopter took off and Mirri looked over at Sephiroth, arching her eyebrows. "General Sephiroth, this would be a good time for another one of your brilliant plans. Because I'm not in the mood to die right now, and I can't run fast enough to get out of this one."

Sephiroth needed only a single look around the platform before he had his answer. "There's a power line going from this pillar, we can slide down on it." James saw said power line, and he tossed aside his remaining gun, to wrap both his arms around the wire before he started to slide down it. Mirri cast another quick glance at Sephiroth. "You know I'm reminded of some line about where angels dare not tread right about now."

Sephiroth grabbed the wire with his gloved hands and kicked off the railing. "If you want people to follow you, you have to lead first." Mirri took one last look at the box which now showed "00:10". She looked down at her white gloves and muttered a quick prayer that they wouldn't be harmed by the journey. Then she grabbed the wire, and kicked of the platform clearing the railing.

----------------

Aeris' head was spinning. Tseng had given her something to knock her out after he had showed her to Sephiroth. Whether it was to keep her from struggling, or to prevent her from knowing what would happen to her she didn't know. She would guess it was the second one; Tseng had always been nice to her even when the job left him no real choice.

That was why he had sent Reno to get her rather then going himself, he wouldn't have wanted to harm her if she resisted. The first thing she saw when her eyes came into vision was a dog... no it was a wolf. A wolf, and it was looking right at her with its golden eyes.

Aeris had heard that in Nibelheim Mountains there where wolves that grew over five feet in length. This wolf had to be around six and a half feet from head to tail. It stood close to four feet tall, and it probably could have fit Aeris' head in its mouth without even trying.

Needlessly to say that was not a pleasant image at all in the circumstances. Aeris tried to move away from the wolf, but all she managed to do was weak shuffle backwards before failing onto her back. /Don't be afraid Child of Gaia.\ It wasn't speech, but it had a voice, and Aeris understood it, she narrowed her eyes.

A moment later it came again. /Yes Child of Gaia it is I, the disciple of Fenris. You have good reason to be afraid, but not of me. The weave worshipers who have placed us in this cage are the ones who you should be afraid of.\ Aeris still wasn't quite sure, she understood most of the words, but all together it was hard to make out. She tried to scoot backwards even farther, but found that her back hit some kind of wall.

The wolf continued to slowly pad forward keeping the distance between them the same, but otherwise doing nothing threatening. Aeris had nothing to lose, she slowly reached out her hand and touched the wolf's fur. It was a brilliant white, almost silver and it felt unusually soft to the hand. /Yes that is me. Chained like a common dog.\

Aeris' eyes managed to focus some more and she saw it. Around the wolf's neck was a huge collar with spikes jutting from it at every angle. It glistened in the light, it looked to be made of silver and there was no clasp to release it with. /This cursed strand of weave which they have tied about my neck so as to also bind my hands. But my teeth are still sharp, and woe to the first of her servants who comes close./

Aeris felt some odd compulsion deep inside her, to cling to this wolf like a long lost cousin, but she pushed it aside. "What's going to happen to us..."

It was low plaintive tone, not a question to which she expected an answer, but she had one instantly. /We are to be saved, and Fenris' wrath shall fall on this building till it rots to its corrupted foundations. Your alpha's scent is strong on you Child of Gaia, and I can tell his strength just by his smell. He will not abandon you. His scent brings great joy to me even if it is mingled with hers, because it means that I will not die in this cage. Do not worry Child of Gaia, I have more power then the weave worshipers know, even with this thrice-damned collar about my neck, I can still touch Gaia. Not enough to do anything that would free us, but enough for one small gift. I will grant you dreamless peaceful sleep until we are freed.\

"Thank you." It hardly seemed the right thing to say, but it was the only thing she could think up at the moment. Then she felt another wave of blackness go over her, and she welcomed it as a brief escape.

----------------

"We will save Aeris." As all things with Sephiroth, this was not so much a command but a statement; Sephiroth willed it, so it would happen. Mirri leaned against the wall of one of Sector Six's buildings and shrugged. "Okay, so we have to fight our way through god knows how many levels of Shinra HQ against its automated defenses and SOLDIERS. That I'm cool with, because I can fight it. But how do we get there first? Unless you're suddenly going to sprout wings and carry us there."

It might not have been the wisest way of stating that last comment in their present company. James' eyes instantly came alight with child-like desire making quite clear that he would be upset if Sephiroth had less than a 20 foot wingspan. Sephiroth however waved James off instantly knowing it was best to nip Firecat ideas in the bud. "No I'm not. However Mirri, haven't you always wondered how I got into Midgar?"

James' hand instantly shot up. "I KNOW!" wedged Masamune's sheath into the ground and pried a sewer grate up. "James we're going to pay your home a visit." James clasped his hands together in joy and shot down the sewer grate, descending lizard like down the walls.

----------------

The only light came from the luminescent green glow of Sephiroth's eyes. He led the way with James in the middle (and apparently having the time of his life looking around at the various shadows being cast) and Mirri in back Sephiroth hated to admit it to himself, but in the end it had gotten to him.

This far below the world, cut of from everything else, he felt just like when he was young... He started talking to dispel the memories, he refused to let it go so far that the others would know he was afraid, particularly when it wasn't of what they would think he was afraid of. "Shinra had a secret lab down here. It's where they created James, and where I found him. I only knew about it because its original use was a site for military projects so I did regular checkups on the lab when I was general. I thought I might use it for a base of operations if Shinra had abandoned it, but they hadn't. I sent the lot of scientists who were working here straight to hell, they were most likely taking orders from Hojo, only he would play God so openly."

Sephiroth paused, the light casting shadows that showed a hint of James' ears even underneath his hat (which he had somehow managed to hang onto) upon the wall. "Of course I knew Shinra would investigate so I decided not to use it as a base, but I did leave one piece of equipment I couldn't take with me here. Shinra of course would believe that it belonged here and leave it alone."

Mirri was apparently beginning to catch onto what Sephiroth was talking about. "So you have one stashed down here? Can it take us all the way to Upper Midgar?" For a response Sephiroth just quickened his pace and let out a low "I hope" under his breath.

----------------

James recognized the place even in the darkness. Granted James had very good night vision, but even without it, the feeling of the place would have been enough. He shuddered slightly, there where very few things that ever made him shudder, but this place had always "creeped him out" in his words. Still it wasn't like any of the people who had really creeped him out where still around, or even alive, Seph had taken care of that.

Of course now that he had Sephiroth and Mirri with him, he doubted anything could possibly go wrong. Sephiroth flipped a light switch and a few moments later among the sparks lights began to flicker on. James was instantly able to recognize the one piece of equipment that hadn't been there before, and Sephiroth was already looking at it. Mirri's attention quickly focused on it, and a few moments later Mirri was climbing into the back seat of the helicopter.

James followed and Sephiroth took the front seat next to the "wheel" such as it was. "This is the 'Black Angel' my own personal helicopter. One of the things I used it for was to make checkups on this lab. There's a shaft that runs from this lab to Upper Midgar, and I doubt the falling of the Sector Seven plate damaged it. If we have enough fuel we should be able to make it easily. If we don't... it's a very long way down. So I suggest both of you pray to whatever respective things you believe in."

James nodded, and Sephiroth pressed a button causing the helicopters interior to light up. Including a red light informing them with an important message "Warning: Low Fuel." James lay down, stretching out as much as he could (not putting on a seat belt unlike Mirri) whatever happened would happen. There wasn't that much to gain by agonizing over it.

----------------

Sephiroth gave the engines one final jerk, and then they died. The blades stopped rotating, and he carefully leveled the helicopter off. Granted as they where above the edge of the Sector Seven plate had been, there wasn't anywhere in particular to land. He took one more look down, and then slid across the helicopter's front seat to open the door on the other side. "Everybody out!"

Mirri undid her seat belt and leapt from the helicopter just as Sephiroth did with James only a moment behind them. All three of them hit solid ground, but had plenty of time to watch the Black Angel plummet to its demise. Sephiroth saluted the craft, it had always served him well. Then he turned back to his still living companions. "Let's go, it's time to pay Shinra a visit."

**OWAN:**

I have allowed anonymous comments in the sincere hope that we will hear from the people who read this. In the sincere hope that people read this. I hope that people read this.

In a similar vein, I would like to address our sole reviewer, Demonsurfer. Thank you. Your support made this possible. Get all your friends to read it, and I'll even go back and fix some more errors.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five: If money is such a problem, well they've got mansions, think we should rob them!

FN: The Get of Fenris and all phrases pertaining to them belong to White Wolf Studios whose material I borrow because I endorse. OWAN: I think he means… I don't know what he means. It's supposed to be a good thing.

Mirri glared up at the huge Shinra Tower and scowled. "You realize that all my explosives are currently sitting under the Sector Seven plate now, right?" Sephiroth nodded and Mirri casually rested a hand on James' shoulder to share a joke with him that Sephiroth had no trouble hearing. "Heh... the things a guy will go through for a beautiful woman." Sephiroth focused on her with the intensity of a laser. "Aeris is a Cetra, that is the only thing about her that maters to me. Besides, rescuing her is not the only reason I'm doing this. Shinra killed a lot of innocent people when they dropped the plate. We can't retaliate against violence like that by destroying another reactor, it would be like putting a band aid on a wound from a nine gauge. We're going to rip out Shinra's heart and cut off its head in one blow." Mirri shrugged casting a look backwards at James. "Sure, whatever works is cool."

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The secretary looked up at the familiar sound of the door opening, and was greeted with a very unfamiliar sight. Three people had come through the door, and all three of them had the glowing eyes signifying mako enhancements.

The one in front was female, and she raised her hands just as blades sprung from the gloves she wore. A moment later the blades launched themselves from the gloves, and the secretary watched in horror as the guards who had come to attention too slowly were killed by those blades. Before the secretary could even act, she found herself on the point of a very long blade held by a silver haired man dressed in black.

She was frozen, and the man's voice slowly registered in her ears. "Go ahead, press the button, sound the alarm. I want Shinra to know I'm here, bring their entire army, I'll destroy them. In ninety seconds if you are still inside this building, you will die. With that the blade was withdrawn, the women slammed the alarm button under her desk, got up and ran for the door.

----------------

James was doing a good job of salvaging the dead bodies of the guards. He now already had two guns slung over his shoulders and several clips in his pants. The lobby was deserted for the moment, but it wouldn't be for long, Shinra would send more guards.

Still Seph was calm and so was Mirri, so James just followed their lead. The elevators opened, and the three of them stepped in. Sephiroth hit the button for the 60th floor, and then they waited. The elevator's lights went out around the 40th floor, and Sephiroth scowled, not that he was caught by surprise. "So they finally cut power to the ordinary elevators. Whatever is waiting on the other side of that door, I want you two to take it out quickly. No playing, understand?"

James and Mirri both nodded and Sephiroth returned his attention to the door. The elevator was too small for him to draw Masamune, so he braced for throwing himself against the door. Masamune's weight helped carry him through the doors, though he was unable to keep his feet.

He dove to the ground... right in front of two guards who had their guns ready. Sadly for them Sephiroth's fall gave his compatriots a clear line of fire. One guard's body soon resembled a porcupine while the other's was Swiss cheese. Sephiroth stood up not long after both guard had joined him on the floor, though they would not be standing back up.

There was a staircase nearby, but a quick check of the door proved it locked. A slice from Masamune changed its mind. All three of them were soon dashing up stair after stair, Sephiroth counting how many flights they had gone up. The stairs would stop at level 60, and Shinra forces would be waiting for them, in minutes things would truly begin.

----------------

James would open the door because he had the best weapon for dealing with multiple foes at long range. On the other side of the huge hallway was a private Shinra elevator that would access any floor they wanted to. Between him and that elevator where guards, SOLDIERS and robotic defenders in numbers hard to count.

James jumped to the side quickly as they began to aim at him, and he fired some shots of his own. James didn't bother to aim, against that many foes so long as his bullets didn't strike the floor or the ceiling they would most likely strike flesh or the robotic equivalent.

Mirri came in next, crossing her arms and launching 10 blades before springing to the opposite side James had come through. Finally Sephiroth came through, and facing odds incredibly in their foes favor, the three attacked without hint of self preservation in their eyes. It was Sephiroth's plan and it made a certain amount of sense.

If they were in among their foes then those foes couldn't fire without worrying about hitting each other, yet James and the other could shoot (and slice) them. Not to mention that the three of them could probably take more wounds then the others without dieing. James found himself between two guards and he fired on them, one gun pointing in either direction like a ship launching a double broadside.

Both men fell to the ground, and James spun around looking for a new target. There where plenty of them, a robot turning to meet him met an untimely end, if it was ever alive. Thus did it continue.

----------------

Mirri danced amid a storm of shrapnel and death. She cut apart what she could reach, and launched her blades when she had to. Then suddenly it happened, among the chaos she saw him. A man in a blue uniform with black chevrons near the neck and wielding a huge blade, he was a first class SOLDIER. All it took was eye contact, and the two had created a small amount of order among the chaos.

The two rushed at each other, and Mirri blocked his descending blade with both hands. Then for a moment the two pushed against each other, seeing who could prove stronger then the other. It seemed and even contest until Mirri cheated.

With a quick shift she left only one hand blocking the blade, and quickly aimed her free hand. Before the SOLDIER could take advantage of his two hands to Mirri's one, he got five blades in his chest. He fell backwards, and Mirri rushed forward, first class SOLDIERS didn't die easily.

With her other hand she separated his head from his body and then spun around fast enough to stick those same blades into a robots chest. New blades loaded back into her other glove, and she returned to the chaos.

----------------

In was incredibly brief and incredibly bloody. It took at most two minuets before it was over. James darting here and there, carefully rationing his ammo since he would have a hard time reloading. Mirri dancing with her blades, and... Sephiroth. With Masamune held in his hands, Sephiroth was the Grim Reaper personified. An angel of death, scythe in hand, mowing down lives like grains of wheat tossed into a thresher.

Bullets whipped past him without touching him, and it was easy to tell which people he had killed. They lay on the floor, their bodies cut in half, and blood only slowly starting to flow from them.

Stepping up to the elevator over the bodies of his former comrades, Sephiroth pulled out a small black card. He put it in the card reader next to the elevator, and the thing sprang to life as buttons lit up and the door opened. He stepped in and his partners followed him. He hit the button for floor 68 and his voice was a low growl as he spoke. "We're going to free Aeris first, then I'll get the president. If any of you see him, bring him to me alive, I'm not saying anything about unhurt.

----------------

Hojo glared at the container, it had been close to five hours now. Five hours after the "light" sedative Tseng said to have given the girl should have worn off. He would see that Tseng paid for holding up the progress of science! Heaven help that Turk is the pure Cetra decided that his "cousin" made a better meal then mate.

Of course it was bad enough that no one besides him could see the value of science. What did it matter if they lost some number or other of SOLDIERS hunting down his male Cetra subject? Let alone the "cost" of equipping those SOLDIERS with the special bullets that Hojo had required. Shinra sent out men without those bullets, they where massacred, and the President blamed Hojo for not making clear what Hojo had explained beyond a doubt.

Nor could he forgive that metalsmith who had complained constantly about creating that collar. Of course that collar was the only thing keeping every single person in the building safe at the moment. Hojo did everything correct, but he was constantly encumbered by the mistakes of others!

Shinra had known of the Half-Cetra's existence, even her very domicile, but it had taken him years to convince President Shinra to go out and do something about it! He heard the "ding" of the elevator opening, and then who he saw getting out of it made his blood go cold.

Sephiroth stepped out of the elevator, and two others, a female SOLDIER and the escaped Project Patchwork. He turned to run off, but he only got a few feet before a blade sliced through his lab coat, and then through his leg.

He went down on one knee, the wound was not life threatening on its own, but the encumbrance it brought with it was. He soon found himself lifted into the air, and held eye to eye with Sephiroth. Sephiroth had always been good at hiding his emotions, but this time that skill eluded him. "RELEASE THEM! You have one chance for a fast death Dr.; I suggest you think about what it's worth to you."

Hojo just smiled, he might die, but his hand was no so weak as to force him to obey orders. "You're too late Sephiroth, look! My Cetra and half Cetra subjects should soon be breeding to provide me with the subject I desire!" As he spoke the girl slowly began to awaken, and the Cetra began to move towards her. Project Patchwork looked at the glass specimen tank, and then an odd look crossed his face. "You want that... to mate... with her... SICK!"

Sephiroth's face echoed the patchwork's statement. "Give me the password to open that thing!" Hojo laughed as Sephiroth became in touch with his emotion for one of the few times in his life. It was a truly remarkable sight. The Cetra moved away from the being he should be mating with, and looked right at Sephiroth. Then Hojo's worst nightmare became reality.

/8, 13, 10, 13. The Child of Gaia is still very weak, one of you should look after her./ Sephiroth dropped Hojo unceremoniously and dashed over to the control panel. He quickly entered in the passcode, and a moment later a section of the glass tank slid open. Hojo screamed as the Cetra leapt through the opening in the tank and landed on him, knocking him to the ground.

Helplessly he looked up a pair of huge golden eyes, filled with hatred. Large golden eyes, and larger fangs, Hojo grunted in pain as claws dug into his body. /Weave worshipper prepare to learn the ways of the wyld, the weak die/ The jaws began to descend, but they stopped just in time.

Sephiroth had retrieved the half Cetra from the tank, and it was starting to rotate into the floor. Very soon it would release the experimental Jenova lifeform. Hojo felt new hope well up in him, the experimental lifeform was uncontrollable, but the chaos might give him a chance.

----------------

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend." It was not as strong a mantra as normal but Sephiroth refused to succumb to doing something foolish like asking questions in this situation. The wolf was obviously on their side, and it obviously had a hatred of Hojo to equal Sephiroth's own, or close to it. He asked no question over why the demented scientist had called it a Cetra, or how it could "talk".

He had only one thing on his mind, the malformed being descending from the ceiling, that would soon be able to escape through the same hole the wolf and Aeris had used. He held Aeris in his hands, he turned to James quickly. "James, take care of her, get her to some place safe, much as any place in this building is, now GO!"

James took Aeris from Sephiroth's hands, holding her in his own two. It seemed an odd thing, but for the first time at that moment Sephiroth realized that James had above human strength as well. He pushed it aside as James went for the elevator, the wolf uttered a low growl and stepped off of Hojo.

Mirri simply loaded blades into her gloves glaring at the monster she would soon be fighting. /I will lend my strength to yours, as much of it as I have while this cursed chain resides around my neck.\ The moment the monster left the cage, the wolf was on it, his jaws tearing out a chunk of its flesh before he jumped away.

As soon as the wolf was away he instantly spit out the chunk of flesh. The thing was already starting to look rancid and it melted into the ground where it lay. /Wyrm, taste the wrath of Fenris!\ Mirri raised her fists and launched her blades at the thing. They struck the monster, but were melted into scrap by the things corrosive blood rather than sticking in the wounds they created to cause further damage..

Sephiroth slowly fingered Masamune as he prepared his strike, his blow would have to be perfect. The monster meanwhile let out a bellow of pain, and began to spray its corrosive blood around. Some of it splashed on the wolf, and in places patches of its fur vanished. Some of it came towards Mirri, but she managed to dodge it.

Sephiroth swirled his black outfit around him like a shield, it had been treated to resist heat, cold, and just about everything else. The coat resisted the acidic blood just fine. The monster let out another bellow, and opened its mouth. New small monsters began to jump from the monsters mouth. Mirri sliced one in half, and at the same time, the wolf crushed another one in its jaws. Acid poured form its jaws, and the wolf didn't spit it out fast enough to prevent it from getting obvious burns in places around its jaws. Sephiroth finally struck.

He dashed forward, and sliced through the last of the three small monsters, and came straight at the huge one. "FURY'S EDGE!" It was a rapid succession of strikes, each one quick so as to avoid letting the monsters blood get on his blade. Then finally he drove his blade home into the cut he had opened with several previous strikes, and the monster fell apart, its acidic blood melting the cement floor.

Sephiroth sheathed his blade and turned to the elevator which was opening again. James was on the floor, his body convulsing with electric shocks. Reno was standing over him with his nightstick.

In his other hand, he had a pistol pointed at Aeris' head, Aeris who was just barely standing on her two feet. "I think I have something that belongs to you. Give up now, or else." Sephiroth released the strap that held Masamune's sheath to his back.

----------------

It was bitter for Sephiroth.

Getting dragged in front of President Shinra like an animal. The wolf apparently had similar thoughts of the situation. They had tossed them in the same cell, something about "two monsters learning from each other" that made him scowl just to contemplate. The handcuffs where not normal, they used opposite electrical charges to hold each other together.

Sephiroth could have torn any metal ones to shreds but with those cuffs on he couldn't pull his hands from behind his back. The cuffs also automatically prevented the person from using any magic, even Sephiroth's own inborn magic; he couldn't do anything.

He had failed them, but he would find a way of out it. There was something about seeing Reno lock Mirri up that had put his mind at rest. "So Catwarrior, you get killed in the morning, last chance to have sex with me!" "In your dreams." "WELL DUHHH!"

If Reno was any example of what they were up against, Shinra didn't have a chance of holding him. /It's funny. You don't seem particularly corrupt Silver Fang, regardless of how strong she is in you.\ "Who is?" /You know of whom I speak.\

That announcement was accompanied by a growl from the wolf's throat. Sephiroth answered that statement with a growl from his own throat that was just as bestial. "I didn't ask for her strength. I was born with it. Just like I didn't ask to be human." /Gaia has little care for what we ask or wish for. You use her strength willingly enough.\ That drew another growl from Sephiroth's throat.

"I use the weapons of my foes against them. I believe in never giving up, and never allowing any rules or conventions to stand in my way." The sound that left the wolf's throat was a cross between a bark and a laugh. /You would find welcome enough among the ranks of Fenris singing such a song of battle. Very well. The Child of Gaia is a helpless pup, and it is the duty of the entire pack to protect her. If you can break my bonds, then I can free you from yours.\

"What bonds?" /This 'collar' that chains me like a common dog. Can you move your hands enough? If you're as strong as you should be, then you can free me of it./ Sephiroth let out a low sigh, his was not to question the logic of the world.

He slowly turned around, and began to bend down on knees. He felt the wolf rub up against his legs, and then he had it. He felt spikes that were sharper then they looked pierce through his gloves and then through his skin. His hands were held together by the cuffs, but he still had some mobility. Enough to close his hands around the collar, and enough to pull the thing in half.

He eased his grip as he felt the collar come apart in his hands, He let go of the collar pieces he held, and they fell to the floor as his skin began to scab over. He turned back around, and the wolf shook out its mane that was no loner encumbered.

The sound that next came from the wolf could not be called a purr, but it was about as close to it as one would ever come. /YES, YES, YES! GAIA FLOW THROUGH ME! ONCE AGAIN BESTOW ME WITH YOUR GIFTS!\ The wolf continued to rub up against Sephiroth's legs, and its voice returned to normal.

/This gift is normally only practiced among Glasswalkers, but when living among the Weave one find sit necessary to consort with goblins. Allow me to direct them into you chains, they should be quite adept at dealing with such pieces of 'technology' by now.\ Even though it was a mental voice, "technology" was slowly sounded out as if a new word. Sephiroth didn't know what the wolf meant, but a moment later he had his results.

The electronic cuffs began to spark, and a moment later, the electric charge between them, died. Not just the electric charge, Sephiroth once again had the ability to use magic, the cuffs were nothing now.

He turned to the wolf, and nodded to it. "Thanks, I think it's time we prepare to give Shinra a bit more then they expect when they come to kill us." /We will not be slaughtered in a cage like cattle.\ For a moment the two rested preparing for the next battle.

----------------

"Well James, this sucks." "You said it Mirri." "I mean they took my gloves, and they searched me for my blades." "Yeah, and they took my hat!" "So what do we do now?"

"Well we're going to be killed tomorrow morning, and now we're in a cell, without guns or gloves. I think that what we do is pretty clear. Do you still have it on you?"

"Of course I do! I mean, it's not like they could have taken it from me." "Yeah, I think Reno just searched me to satisfy his male hormones, and not very thoroughly at that." "So you think now would be a good time to do that?" "Well you have it, let's use it."

"Okay, but with these things on, I need you to take off my pants." "Sure James, but then I need you to take off my top." "No problem Mirri." "There you go."

"Thanks. Okay... now I just have to hold it in the right place. Does that look good to you?" "Feels pretty good to me, go with it." ... "Should it be taking this long?"

"In this situation, yes." "Ohh okay, I mean I'm totally new to this kind of thing, and you're always so experienced Mirri."

"Jesus James, it's your own body, you should be familiar with it." "Well yeah, but a guy only spends so much time attending to parts of it." ... "Now we're in business James." "Okay now do me!"

The electromagnetic cuff that previously occupied Mirri's right hand was now residing on the floor. Held directly below it by James, was a red furred tail emerging from his slightly lowered pants. Where a tuft of fur would have been on a normal tail, (as much as a tail growing from a person would be considered normal) James' tail instead had a flame.

A flame that had a moment before been pressed against the metallic cuff like a blowtorch. The cuffs where quite powerless with one burned through and Mirri was thus able to remove two blades in sheathes hidden under her elbows that Reno had thoroughly missed..

A few quick twists of the blades into the cuffs on James hands rendered them as inefficient as Mirri's single one. Mirri then calmly bent down and picked up her bodysuit and put it back on. James meanwhile tucked his tail back down his pants leg where it had been before, and after pulling his pants back up, there was no proof it existed.

"Well now what do we do?" "Now I give you a scratch behind the ears for doing a good job." James was already starting to purr. "I like this plan!"

----------------

Sephiroth rolled over on the prison 'bed' at the exact same time as the wolf stood up from where it had been laying on the ground. /You heard it too? Your hearing is much better than most humans.\ Sephiroth let out a low laugh as he began to press himself against the door. "Yes, I'm just full of surprises."

He was prepared to use fire magic to melt the door's hinges before he knocked it down, but to his amazement the door opened on its own. He stepped into the hallway and stared at his surroundings. The floor was covered with the blood of the two dead guards, guards who had been killed in a very inexpert manor. /Most vicious, an unexpected but pleasant surprise on the field of battle.\

Sephiroth didn't pay much attention to the wolf at the moment, he had only one thing on his mind. At the side of the cell by the fallen guards the groups weapons were piled. Sephiroth raced over to them (careful not to slip on the blood) and retrieved Masamune and returned it to its rightful place on his back.

He then turned to the cell nearby that held Mirri and James, he opened it, James and Mirri were lying on their separate bunks, both already out of their cuffs. Mirri muttered something under her breath that sounded like "about time" and then breezed out of the cell.

She instantly took her gloves from where they had been placed and put them back on. Then she began the laborious task of returning the blades that had been taken from her to their respectful places. While she did that James took the fallen guards guns and strapped them over her shoulders.

Sephiroth took the staff that was laid against the wall and made his way back to the final cell and opened it. Aeris lay on the cold bed but slowly began to get up. Sephiroth tossed the staff to her and she caught it fairly well. "Sorry for being such a burden to you." /You have little reason to apologize Child of Gaia, the weave forces us into our roles and none of us can hope to truly fight it. Trying to extricate yourself from it is like a fly struggling in a spider's web, you only tangle yourself in deeper. It must be cut one strand at a time.\

Sephiroth turned around and glared at the wolf who had apparently followed him out of his cell. Aeris carefully walked out of the cell, slightly stretching as if not quite as ready for battle as those around her were. In the end she seamed satisfied because she looked Sephiroth right in the eye. "Well then, what do we do now?"

For a moment everyone's eyes where on Sephiroth, James', Mirri's, Aeris', and the wolf's. If it was a test of his leadership, and Sephiroth wasn't afraid. "We go back through the lab, and we kill President Shinra. Then we can take his private elevator back down to the motor pool, steal some vehicles and escape."

There was a brief nod among them, and then Sephiroth began to lead the way down the hall to whatever waited for them.

----------------

It was all very weird in James opinion. No more living guards, just lots of dead ones. They all seamed to have died pretty messily given all the blood sloshing about. Of course there were some dead scientists as well, the cells where on the same floor as the lab, for reasons that James didn't want to contemplate.

Finally coming to a certain part of the lab that they hadn't seen before, Sephiroth stopped. A door stood in ruins in a corner of the lab. He looked at the ruined door and walked closer to it. When he saw what was inside he beat his hand against the wall in anger, and frustration. "Too late, too late, someone freed her, damn them to hell, I was too late!"

James was going to ask who Sephiroth was talking about, but now didn't seem to be a good time. /We should go. This place reeks of every kind of taint and corruption imaginable. This place has been touched by the Wyrm, like I've nothing I've felt before. Not to mention it seems to be home to every type of weave worshipers imaginable. This place, the very pinnacle of this unhallowed caern. The evil in it... I can't find words...\

Sephiroth turned away from the wall. "Never mind, we have to keep moving. We don't have the weapons we need to destroy this place, for now we must work on staying alive."

----------------

President Shinra was dead. A huge blade had been shoved in his back, and he lay sprawled out over his desk. It was just one of the many things that she had seen today that made Aeris shiver. From the look on Sephiroth's face however he was feeling an entirely different set of emotions.

The other woman, Mirri Aeris was fairly sure, and the other man, James apparently didn't understand and neither did the wolf. Sephiroth slowly approached the president's body and ripped the blade from his back. He tossed it on the ground unceremoniously. "First her, and now this. Five years worth of trouble coming back in one day. Don't ask me about it now, I'll get around to explaining later. For now only one thing matters, this..."

As he spoke Sephiroth fished around in the dead president's suit until he finally removed a black card. He walked over to an elevator on one side of the room, and put the card in. The elevator opened and he stepped in. Thankfully the thing was grand enough to fit all five of them in, though to wolf seemed somewhat unsure of the device. Sephiroth hit the lowest button on the wall and the elevator began it's painfully slow descent down 70 levels.

It was a painful silence that filled the elevator, and even Aeris was bound by it. The odd thing was that as the ride went on, the wolf's uneasiness seamed to diminish, but Sephiroth's increased.

He began to finger the blade strapped to his back, even though there was no foe in sight, and Aeris doubted there was even room for him to draw it in this elevator. His hand went up and down the blade, even though the sheath was between his fingers and the metal. Eventually the door opened and Sephiroth stepped out into the Shinra motor pool, his hands no longer fingered his blade, his face no longer showing signs of vexation, once again he was in command. "Mirri, hotwire something that can hold you four. I'm going to go find a motorcycle."

Mirri nodded walked over to a truck, and without further delay, drove her fist through the front windshield. Her gloves apparently where much tougher then they looked, because the glass didn't scratch them. She then reached over, and opened the door. She hit a lever inside and the hood of the vehicle opened up. She spent a few moments leaned over the front of it, messing around with the wires inside, and then finally the thing roared to life.

She stood up and nodded to everyone else. "Okay, all aboard that's getting out of this place!" She took the driver's seat as James got into the shotgun position. Aeris got into the backseat as did the wolf, thankfully there was room for both of them. A moment later they took off with Sephiroth hanging behind them on a motorcycle ready to intercept pursuit.

----------------

Sephiroth's fears proved unfounded. Whatever the hell was going on in the Shinra building, it was keeping them busy and no one followed them. They rammed through the checkpoint, James spraying bullets towards the guards post. Then they where clear of Midgar, though they didn't stop the vehicles till they had reached the safety of the woods close to the city.

----------------

They all got off their respective vehicles, and they all let out a grateful sigh, they were done fighting for now. Sephiroth leaned the motorcycle against a tree as he got off. "Well we're out of Midgar. I guess we might as well go around and get to know each other some, for what it's worth, we're going to be fighting along each other for as far ahead as I can see.

I'm General Sephiroth. I spent my entire life fighting. I disappeared five years ago, when I was tossed into the Nibelheim mako reactor. I don't feel like discussing the particulars of that event at the moment. Suffice to say what I saw in that town was enough to make me hate Shinra from the bottom of my heart."

James instantly picked up the ball. "My name is James Firecat!" As he spoke, he removed his hat, showing off his cat ears. "I was 'born' with these, and they're quite effective. I can here a mouse squeak and pinpoint its exact location. I guess I was made by Shinra so as to serve as a biological weapon and commando.

I'm about... sixteen months old. I was created in a lab underneath lower Midgar, but before they could really do anything to me Seph... iroth came along and killed them all. Then I went with him, because I really didn't see any other choice in the matter. I guess I'm fighting with him because a guy does what a guy knows best."

Mirri picked up after James. "My name is Mirri Catwarrior. I was born in Corel, but I left at a relatively young age to fight in the Wutain war. I fought well enough to become a first class SOLDIER and earn the title of Seraphim by fighting at the side of General Sephiroth. I'm fighting because life isn't worth living without raising some hell now and then."

Aeris looked slightly hesitant but she began as well. "My name is Aeris Gainsborough, I was adopted when I was young, I'm not sure what happened to my real parents. I can sometimes... hear voices, and Shinra has always had Tseng and the others keep a close watch on me. I never thought it would come to anything, but I guess I was wrong. I'm here, because I don't want to be afraid any more."

All eyes turned to wolf, who clearly could understand being the center of attention. /My name is Alexander Diamondclaw, I am a Cetra and I long since stopped counting my age. I was born in Cosmo Canyon, my grandparents where part of the first flight of the Cetra. These descended directly from those who fought the Wyrm's corruption but been stricken with her taint and died. My grandparents went south to escape the disease, when they where still young.

My parents are both dead now, my father gave his life defend our caern. Though we have left our frozen homelands, we are still disciples of Fenris, the wolf god of war. I have but one wish for my life, to deal death to those who have been corrupted by the Wyrm.

You are a strange pack to follow into battle. A Ragabash Bone Gnawer, a Theurge Child of Gaia, an Ahroun Black Fury, and a Philodox Silver Fang, who has much of her strength, but as of yet none of her corruption. I will follow you Silver Fang as my alpha. However know that the moment my nose detects corruption from you, you will never find rest till you find yourself breathing without a throat. Get of Fenris do not dally with words, if you fall under her spell, you will die.\

That statement was followed by a growl from Alexander's throat. A growl from Sephiroth's met it. "I will slit my own throat first." /Very well then, my name is Alex, for I will run and hunt with you. Besides, this Child of Gaia needs someone to guide her through her first change. Even if we of Fenris share little with them, they are our kin, and I will leave no kin behind./

That announcement was greeted by the same word coming from three different human throats (and James' whatever that counted as). "WHAT!"

FN: Bet that got your attention. As a side note, if you want to be better able to understand "WHAT THE F?" "Alex" is saying, you should go to White Wolf, and read about Werewolf the Apocalypse, not Forsaken the good set where a werewolf can take shotgun slugs without getting scratched.

OWAN: We have multiple reviewers! I'm so thrilled! Twilight Perfection is going on a 2-week hiatus, as I will be unable to edit and post in that time.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six: Who am I?

Alex's fur instantly bristled, and he raised himself up on all four legs, making himself look as big as possible. /Do I look like some newly weaned pup? Do you think I can't tell kin by the scent? Can't tell Silver Fangs by the way they lead others? Black Furies by the way they lead themselves? Bone Gnawers by the way they slip past, taking any opportunity? A Child of Gaia by the way she tends for the earth?

Yes, none of you three have it, a great overwhelming darkness of humans trying to be in touch with animals. But with her... from her father's side, that same darkness, however from her mothers side, a spark, a fire, an inferno. Humans are slow to mature, but quick to die, living among humans, in that weave world, no wonder she has yet to have her first change. But it would have happened sooner or later, no one outruns a wolf. Best that it happens out here, now that I am here to guide her.\

There was another long, pause that Mirri finally broke. "Okay, everybody take a step back, because I'm going to take a shot in the dark. When I was growing up in Corel, there was a legend about the Canyon that existed on the side of the mountains around the town. The canyon was said to be home to werewolves, or for the more occult minded, lycanthropes.

Now with that child's story in mind, let's fast forward a little, I, out of sheer boredom I happened to read some books on the theories of Cetra. Now one of those theories put forward by the book, mentions how Cetra were incredibly close to the planet. Now, Alex says he and his family had lived in Cosmo Canyon for a long time, at the same time Shinra has always been looking for Cetra, yet never finding any, why?

What if we were to get of our high horse and stop thinking that Cetra where just like us. What if Cetra, were lycanthropes?" Alex stopped bristling and nodded as Mirri went through her explanation. /The Black Fury has an exceptionally quick mind. Not all Cetra were... but I think any still alive are, the term we use is Garou. We weren't as susceptible to the taint the Wyrm spread. Also Cetra, they mated very rarely and with few cubs.

Garou can not mate with each other, but they can mate with wolves producing many pups. I think the Garou who survived Jenova, most of them mated with wolves, died and their children did not have the spark and so lived a wolf lifespan as wolves.

I was not an only child, I had two brothers, born without the spark, and my mother was a wolf. I watched them all die, and am thankful that I matured by wolf years rather then Cetra. If that had happened, I would have never had any chance to truly know them. I think there was no greater pain in my father's heart then the death of his wife and my two brothers.

He taught us all the same. He taught us all the same, when my brothers would die in at most a decade. He buried my brothers and my mother, until only we were left. Some said that is the ultimate price we Garou pay, that we, with immeasurable lifespans, must love those who die in a single decade.\

Another long pause passed among the group. Sephiroth felt bitter bile rising up in his chest. His hatred for this entire twisted world, and the twisted people who had made it.

He forced it down however, blind rage was not a luxury which he could afford at the moment. "We can rest here tonight. Tomorrow morning we can drive the vehicles to the town of Kalm, they should have enough fuel in them, we'll walk after that. For now, we just to worry about staying alive and getting as far away from Midgar as possible. Shinra may have forced us into a tactical retreat, but the war is just getting started. "

It was a familiar dream that Sephiroth dreamed.

Once again he was in the basement of the Shinra mansion, once again he poured over book after book, each one written in Hojo's own hand, each one on their own damning. All together, they where an orchestra of sin, a symphony of misdeeds, an ocean turned to muck, grime, and blood. It was beyond words, beyond comprehension.

Sephiroth tossed a book to the ground. Curiosity didn't kill the cat, it simply pointed the cat at the biggest dog the cat had ever seen, and told the cat that the dog had killed his parents. It wasn't just damming of Hojo's soul, it was damming of the President's as well.

Sephiroth had always thought the man had liked him, but he had sat idly by while Shinra had done what they did to him. Beat him, smashed him, cut him apart till he would fit into the place they wanted him to fit, like a mangled puzzle piece. They had broken his empathy, broken his soul, he couldn't feel what others felt, he couldn't even feel the anger he felt for them.

Every nerve in his body was cut, he couldn't feel anything. All he had was what they had given him, a desire to kill. He would go back to Shinra, and he would kill them all. The first book had answered all his questions, but once he started he couldn't stop reading. He was not born in a vat like the monsters he had seen, he was born of a woman who's name was never mentioned's womb, just like everyone else.

But he could draw enough from the books, the woman who had been his mother, was also Hojo's wife, and that made the man he detested beyond all words his father. The man who had tortured him, his father. Not that it mattered, since Hojo showed no care for Sephiroth, Sephiroth saw no reason to care for his father.

Mako was thicker than blood, and plenty of mako had been injected into Sephiroth's veins by his father. There was one small blessing from the books, the voice was gone. It had over played its hand and revealed its purpose to him, it would never return now. Now that Sephiroth knew, Jenova was nothing to him.

But that wasn't enough, he had conquered in Shinra's name, he had helped the people who had done this to him. He knew why this town seemed familiar to him, for a few brief days after being born, he had lived here, he had been created... born here.

He looked at the pile of books, he wanted to burn them all to a crisp, no, more like he wanted to burn the man who had wrote them to a crisp. That he could do something about. He turned his back on the lab and began to slowly make his way out of the mansion. Down the long hallway, up the spiral staircase, through the secret passage, down the staircase and out the door.

What he saw when he left the mansion broke his concentration even if only for a moment. The entire town resembled a scene from the works of Dante. Every single building beside the Shinra mansion was one fire, everywhere he looked he saw human bodies rent apart, dead ones whose flesh was consumed by fire. Dead bodies everywhere, and the one who killed them had been neither kind nor skilled in their work.

Sephiroth knew in his heart of hearts that somehow the reactor was involved in this. Somehow he had to get to the reactor, he did not ask questions or look for survivors, he simply ran.

(FN: Still in Sephiroth's dream)

He flung open the door to the reactor, and finally saw his quarry on the floor below him. He dashed out across the upper catwalk just in time to see him kill Zack with his own blade. Sephiroth jumped from the upper catwalk and landed on the lower one taking the place of his fallen comrade standing in the monster's way.

"You did this just to torment me, did this because I wouldn't free you, well now no one will!" It was one quick slash rather then a long fight. Sephiroth swung Masamune, cutting apart the lower catwalk he stood on. Before the monster could do anything, the two were plummeting into a pool of liquid mako beneath them. The monster was unable to comprehend it, but Sephiroth smiled, for a while he would finally be able to rest.

Aeris also dreamed a familiar dream, but to her it was more like a nightmare. It was a weak and fuzzy dream, but it always made one thing very clear. She was alone in some place in Lower Midgar, very young, and huddled over her dead mother's body.

However this time as she huddled there against her mother's cold body, no human was coming to pay attention to her. Instead a mangy wild dog, white foam dripping from its jaw caught sight of her, and she was struck immobile.

Aeris came awake with a start. She pushed herself up with her arms, and only then she realized it. She had fallen asleep leaning against Alex, the white fur of his chest slowly rising and falling against her head like a pillow. Had she meant to do that? Slowly as if noticing the absence of her weight, Alex came awake as well.

Alex... It seemed odd to be giving him a name, whether because it meant thinking of him as a person or as a pet she couldn't quite tell. A pair of golden eyes met her green ones. /Fenris would be disgusted with me if he saw that. I have lived a very long life Child of Gaia, and have killed very many. I glory in battle, but I have greatest respect still reserved for nature itself. There is great beauty in newborn life coming into maturity. Excuse me, if I intrude.\

Aeris shook her head quickly. "No it's just... all of this, particularly what you told me is sort of overwhelming." A pair of golden eyes pierced deep into her soul. /Yes it is. Let me tell you a story Child of Gaia...\ The golden eyes blinked, and when they opened again they were leaf green. White fur shifted to green and red, paws began to grow smaller, but more elongated. Fur fell away revealing skin. It took only about 5 seconds but it seemed like it took much longer.

When it was done there wasn't anything visible to show that the two beings had been related in any way. Alex had unkempt red hair tied back in an untidy pony tail and green eyes like Reno, but his face was cut along much different lines. He wore a green cloak, with green long pants and a gray shirt. He still looked young, possibly a few years younger then Sephiroth, around 25.

He was not even that tall, at 5'8 he was more or less average height. His voice had an odd accent to it and he took his time with some words, but it was understandable. "I have always detested this body and the things it brings with it. Its teeth are blunt, its paws weak, its claws, nonexistent. I hated everything it brought with it, everything.

I hated it because I was born blind and deaf like all wolves along with my two brothers. I suckled from my mother next to them, and we were all the same. Until the day my father came to me, and told me I was special. That I would have a lifespan to make my brothers look like the flicker of a candle next to the kiss of Helios.

I hated knowing it, and I hated it even more because my brothers didn't hate me for it. Wolves are far less jealous then humans, with a far greater understanding of the rules of nature, including survival of the fittest. What I felt, the humans have a term for it 'survivors' guilt' I believe.

I had my first change when I was two years old, and already full grown as a wolf. After that change, for the rest of my brothers' lives I never shifted again. After their deaths, I just laid on their graves, not moving wishing to follow them to their graves in death. I would have, if my father hadn't intervened.

He grabbed my by the scruff of my coat lifting me up like I was a pup, and carried me north. It felt like weeks, but time had lost all meaning for me. He carried me far enough north that I came to the frozen land where her monsters still breed. He tossed me before one of them, and it moved forward to kill me. I felt its horrid claws tear across my sides, and that was when it broke. I stood back up, and crushed the things neck in one bite.

Its flesh was putrid and only some of it was good to eat, but I ate those parts entirely. It was not the only one of its kind I killed. I gorged myself on their foul bodies, and raised my head in a sky shattering howl to Fenris, the god of war. From that day forward, the pain... it wasn't so bad any more, it was one of the few things I couldn't control.

My father's death.. It does not pain me at all because he died in a way he would have wished to. We can live our lives and be happy with them. I am one of Fenris, my center is cool iron surrounded by the molten heat of war. You are a child of Gaia, if you ever feel that the world may overwhelm you, look down at the ground beneath our feet, look down at the life that springs from it.

There is a beauty to it, I respect that, but I will never worship it the way you will come to. For now, know this. I am happier then I have ever been in my life, for now I will have a chance to set my self against true servants of the Wyrm. The time of the great battle is coming, and we will win."

Aeris drew a slow breath. "How do you know?" Alex smiled as he looked at his hands. "I was coward when I was young, and there is nothing Fenris hates as much as a coward. That is why I can stand this body, because I stopped being afraid of it, had no reason to. Strength is not something you find in jaws, claws, or paws. Strength is something that's in your mind, its how much you trust that you can handle whatever you are faced with.

Wyrm servants have no such strength, but we do, that is why there will come a day when we will slay each and every single one of them. Look around you, and witness strength. The Silver Fang, he is perhaps one of the strongest alphas to grace this world in many lifespans, even of my people. He has much of her strength, if he can resist her taint, he will be an alpha I gladly follow into any battle.

The Black Fury who will allow no collar to be placed on her neck, I pity any fool who tries to raise himself above her. Look at the Ragabash who lies across her legs, like a trained lap dog. A more detestable act it is hard to imagine even for a Bone Gnawer. He has strength, of a sort, beyond any measure I know of. Child of Gaia, he will not turn back against anything. Never underestimate the raw power of foolishnesses combined with joy.

You have great strength Child of Gaia, it is simply a matter of finding it." Aeris looked Alex up and down as he was now, nothing was the same, except for his mind, but that was what mattered. "Thank you, Alex."

Alex blinked and when his eyes opened again they were gold. Red hair and green clothing melted into white fur. Hands turned back into paws, and Alex once again lay down on the ground. Aeris wasn't afraid when she closed her eyes again, she had strength, all she had to do was look for it in the right place.

End Chapter Six

FN: In retrospect, now that I've looked back at this chapter, I feel like I should whack myself with a stick for writing this chapter, and having a lot of these chapters from a lot of different pieces of work that didn't pan out, this one will probably stick in my craw the most because it got posted. To clarify, I despise the way I wrote Alex in this chapter, he comes off sounding too much like Gandalf, bear with me, and try not to make any judgments on his character till the next chapter.

OWAN: Man, though, if Gandalf had been a werewolf, that Balrog would've been just so much kibble. On another note, I'd like to thank all of our wonderful reviewers, and apologize for my long absence. It's good to be back, people.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven: We can drive around this town, and let the cops chase us around.

Alex did not mind traveling in the vehicle, though he would rather have run alongside it. Sadly the Silver Fang told him that wasting his strength in such a way would be against the good of the pack. He looked at the human city of "Kalm" and smelled the air.

Compared to the one called "Midgar" it was a bed of roses in full bloom. Still Midgar could have made a field of the dead and decaying smell enjoyable. Granted the town of Kalm seemed to have been cut from a different cloth. It was designed for the same purpose as the canyon he held close to his heart.

Of course it was nowhere near as grand, not that Alex blamed the humans. It was completely unfair to expect them to have the patience or the skill to do with bricks and cut blocks of stone what could be done with the raw material. He entered walking on two legs so as not to draw attention to the group as the Silverfang wanted them to have as much stealth as possible.

Granted "Stealth" was an equivocal phrase when traveling with a Ragabash. The Silver Fang had made the most unwise (In Alex's eyes) decision of allowing the Bone Gnawer and the Black Fury to go off together. Between the one's zeal for life and the other's playful malice, one could not rule out any possibility.

Granted Alex had a healthy respect for both of them (Or at least the Black Fury) when it came to battle. Still one should keep a close eye on Ragabashes under all circumstances, or else they would end up telling a Red Talon that they needed to think more like a human and less like a wolf. Or even worse a Black Fury that she had nice pelt and would she like to be mates with them?

The second problem while having more severe results was also self curing. If the Black Fury said yes after she was done with him (supposing the Ragabash hadn't been gelded with silver implements) then the Ragabash soon learned how to stay in line for the most part. Suffice to say that seemed the situation with those two.

Alex readjusted that train of thought as the two returned from their hunt for supplies. The Ragabash gripped a metallic scythe in both hands and looked up at the Silver Fang with pride in his eyes. "Mirri felt that I should have a weapon besides the guns I stole from guards. What do you think? Grim Reaper Firecat!" Alex wasn't quite sure what to say. He had heard humans use the phrase "Grim Reaper" enough to know that it was the equivalent to death.

Suffice to say, it was harder to imagine some on less likely to portray death then a Ragabash. The Silver Fang had similar ideas. "Grim? Mirri, I thought you said that you would keep a close eye on James..." The Black Fury had changed her artificial coat somewhat. Thought maintaining the same colors she now also wore a flowing white piece of clothing similar to a cloak that went from her chin down to her knees.

It was flung open and thus Alex could only guess at what purpose it was supposed to serve. In the end he guessed that it like many artificial coats he had seen it served no actual purpose as was just there to make the wearer look or feel more like an alpha. The surprising thing was that it actually worked to an extent on the Black Fury, it was simple, but elegant, and somehow just managed to hint at the dangers within.

The Black Fury smiled sweetly at the Silver Fang (a more dangerous sign in nature was hard to imagine) as she spoke. "I did. I decided that James needed a weapon besides what he would get off of dead guards. So I let him choose something that he liked and was good with. He chose the scythe, and he's actually fairly impressive with it. Come on James, why don't you show them?"

As she spoke the Black Fury pulled out numerous red fruit from her pockets. She then began to pass them back and forth between her hands in a show of great dexterity. Slowly one at a time she somehow managed to toss one of the fruits towards the Ragabash while keeping all the others in perfect motion.

She tossed them from various angles at various times but for each one the Ragabash would lean in the correct direction, swing his scythe and slice the thing in half. Then when she finally only had two left the Black Fury tossed them both, one to the left and one to the right. The Ragabash giddily wielded his blade, spinning it in a full circle and slicing both of them apart.

After that the two turned to the rest of the group and bowed as if they were showing off just for their enjoyment. Clearly the Silver Fang was not amused. "Fine, he can keep it, did you get the other things I asked for?" The Black Fury shrugged like a wolf whose meal was being interrupted by a scavenging bird asking if it could get some of that carcass.

"Of course I did. Food, canteens, some materia, in the amounts you asked for, after all we can only take with us what we can carry." The Ragabash broke in the moment the Black Fury finished. "By the way... are we so sure that we shouldn't be thinking about getting some chocobos?" Alex stifled a laugh, just like he did every time he heard humans talking about ridding chocobos.

If they couldn't trust their own legs they had nothing, chocobos had been put on this world to feed others, like wolves. The Ragabash continued either not noticing or not caring about Alex's half laugh. "Because apparently if we go the way you say we're going on foot, we're going to run into the Midgar Zolom. By the way, why is it called the Midgar Zolom, Midgar is a way back, shouldn't it be the Kalm Zolom?"

The phrase "A Ragabash Question" was a well known among Garou, and Alex had never herd a better example of it. He answered it anyway regardless of its nature. "It's a corrupted translation of a language the followers of Fenris created to help them better communicate in any form.

In that language, Midgard is the world. Midgar Zolom would be a monstrous serpent who could encircle the entire world with its body. Also called 'Jormangundr', it supposedly is the beast that Fenris would fight on the day he is freed from his chains. Suffice to say, this Zolom is nothing but an oversized snake. I see no reason why this pack could not drive it to ground and kill it."

There was a great silence after Alex comment while everyone else digested what he said. In the end Aeris spoke next. "Well if we know where we're going, are sure we can go that way, and are ready to go, what are we waiting for?" The Black Fury instantly nodded her assent. "Aeris I like the way you think. No point in worrying about monsters from stories, I've seen plenty of monsters out here, and not a single on could stand up to me."

The Ragabash nodded his agreement to that statement. "Yeah, I mean look at us! We're scarier than anything that we're going to run into out there! You wanna see a real monster that makes people run in fear? I'll take off my hat!"

Had Alex been in a form that would have allowed the particular motion, he would be rolling on the ground, his paws batting at the sky in laughter. There truly is nothing more magnificent then the words of a Ragabash.

--------------

The monster that rose up out of the swamp was clearly not large enough to wrap its body around the world. If it ever met Fenris in battle the thing would have soon been so much shredded flesh. However it was approximately 50 feet long and possibly a touch taller then Fenris. Suffice to say, this thing was not a monster of legends, but it would not be easily destroyed.

The Silver Fang took his place in the vanguard of the charge against the thing. The monster opened up its horrific maw, showing teeth easily as big as Alex was. It didn't matter. The Silver Fang broke to the left and Alex followed him as the Silver Fang took his blade and drove it into the monsters huge body.

Granted the blade was most likely only a pinprick to the monster, but Alex didn't care. A wolf pack did not kill their larger prey in one single attack, wolves had fortitude and would wear the beast down. The Black Fury and the Ragabash went to the right of the monster. The Black Fury releasing her claws into the monsters side while the Ragabash made one quick strike and then darted away.

The monster bellowed in pain, but not in any particular mortal kind of pain. It twisted around like a striking serpent, trying to drive its body between the two groups so it could cut them off from each other. Now it was Alexander's turn, the ground was wet and marshy, but it was firm enough to run against and to jump from.

Alex pushed off, at the same time allowing his connection with Gaia to flow through him. Alex's leap could have carried him to the clouds, he easily managed to land on the monstrous snakes back digging his claws into it. It was more to help him hold on than to damage, that would come next. Alex lowered his head and ripped a chunk of flesh from the monsters back.

The monster wheeled, its head arching up, no longer looking down at the three below, but its rising like a cobra, looking right at Alex. The disparity in size meant nothing to Alex, his teeth tore another chunk of flesh from the monster's back. The monster bellowed in pain, and then suddenly a blast of intense fire struck Alex.

It was said that those like his father, those born to mature slowly, born in the shape of those who controlled fire, could appease its spirit not to harm a Garou. Alex had no such protection, he felt his coat burst into flames and with a yelp of pain he tore his claws from the monsters back and rolled off it. He found sudden unexpected relief in the swampy marsh below, it extinguished the fire as he rolled his entire body over in it.

The monster had turned back to the other three and its huge body tried to corral the three surrounding them. Even after he had extinguished the fire, Alex felt pain shoot through his body, wounds left by fire would not heal quickly, but he ignored the pain. He reached into himself, and this time felt the strength of Fenris flow through. His paws had wings as he once again leaped onto the things back and began to run its scaly length.

Finally he reached the end just below the monster's huge head, and once more called on the strength of Fenris. The chunk of flesh that Alex's jaws now tore from the monster was even larger then the last one. The monster let out a horrible yell unbelieving that the foe it had thought dead had returned. It spun around, but this time with none of its former speed.

Alex was determined to finish this monster once and for all, all on his own, just the way Fenris would face Jormangundr, he would slay this Midgar Zolom. /Drive this monster towards solid ground!\ Long hours well spent had taught Alex how to communicate universally to all creatures, wolves, other animals and humans. The three on the ground did not argue, as the monster turned Alex began to run back down its body, dodging balls of flame it summoned to throw at him. All the while the other three where driving their claws into the thing driving it towards land, like a wounded chocobo driven towards a pack waiting for it.

Slowly it drew close enough, as Alex neared the tip of the monsters tail, he felt a bump as the monsters body transferred from marsh to land. He let out a loud howl to the sky, and to the land itself to rise up in his aid, to produce life with the goal of destruction.

In the blink of an eye it happened, a small seedling burst from the ground, and it grew into a sapling, then a tree. Then that tree became a towering elder, with one difference. This tree had no branches and no leaves, its top was a sharp point.

A point that drove through the monster's body and then through the monster's head, finally killing it. Alex easily jumped from the monsters unmoving tail landing on the ground, with the slain monster behind him. Then he let out a very long breath and went down his knees barely higher up then his paws his wounds finally managing to catch up with him.

The Ragabash looked up at the impaled Zolom and let out a very long whistle. "Jeeze, hate to be the next guy who comes along and sees this! I mean look at it! It's like Mother Nature meets Mirri!" The Silver Fang looked up at it as well, and nodded. "I think we overspent ourselves killing that thing."

The Black Fury looked up at it an added her sentiments. "I don't know, I think it sort of adds an ambience to this place. Nothing livens up the place like an impaled monster. Sort of Vlad Tepes meets Saint Patrick, you know driving out the snakes, except he does it by impaling them." The Child of Gaia who had taken no part in the battle slowly made her way across the swamp following the others.

Of course she got right to the point none of the others cared to notice, (or at least acknowledge) about the situation. "Alex your hurt!" It was the Fenris code that any wound could be overcome. However, you were allowed to look for healing outside your body in a few cases. One of those was silver, yet another was fire so Alex swallowed his pride.

/Yes, the monster hit me with a blast of flame.\ A green glow began to surround her hands as she reached out and touched Alex's flanks. A feeling of warmness passed over Alex's body as the burn of flame became healingly gentle. Alex drew in another breath and shook his mane, the Child of Gaia was quite skilled whether or not she realized it.

----------

Sephiroth looked up at the dead Zolom, and at the tree that had killed it. It did something to him as he looked up at it. Even though he had killed countless people in battle, this was something new.

This was a strength that extended outside ones body, the strength of the world focused on a single point. What he could do with materia, what he could do without it, his own internal magic was dwarfed by it.

His mind reeled with thoughts, the earth itself opening up to swallow foes... ropes of water drowning men on dry land... water becoming so hot it melted a ships hull to scrap... the visions went on and on, each one more horrifying then the last. In the end he could only come up with one phrase.

"Stop thinking like a human Sephiroth, you must stop thinking like a human..." The power of the Cetra, wielded in that manner, it was the future of the world if his father ever got his hands that power.

It was no wonder why Jenova dared not fight the Cetra straight on, he could only be glad that the Cetra could handle their power better than humans would. He let out another low sigh. "Let's keep going. So long as none of us need rest." A quick nod all around showed that none of them did, so they pressed onward into the caves.

------------

Mirri rather liked the caves, the light shone through it at odd angles creating interesting shapes. For example, if you looked in the right places with the right frame of mind you could see anything. Monstrous shapes, or even one that rather resembled Reno. "Hey Catwarrior, since your still alive wanna make out with me?"

Apparently some things were more monstrous and harder to slay than fifty foot snakes. Thankfully Mirri was saved from having to make a retort by something else she never expected to see at any point in her life, James trying to be threatening.

"Hey righty, what kind of imbecile doesn't know that most cats are left handed? So unless you want me to put a bullet in your liver, you should beat it!" "Yes, that's exactly what I got last time we met, I only shocked you hard enough to put you in cardiac arrest!" Snarl, snarl. "Hey, I had my hands full with Aeris!" "And your friends were distracting me out on the platform!"

Mirri found herself holding quite a sick interest in where this was going. It was like those natures shows she had watched about the mating habits of cheetahs. The female cheetah would only mate if it was surrounded by males, and once that was true it would look over the males and select one it liked. Of course the males would do all they could to try and convince the female to mate with them.

Now being cheetahs they didn't have much in the way of stamina. So they would basically laze around all day and the moment the female cheetah showed herself the others would turn into great big masculine stud cheetahs, for about five minutes.

Then the female would return to whatever she was doing, (Mirri was fairly sure it was hunting for food which she didn't share with the males) and the males would all collapse and try to catch their breath for the rest of the day. Now Mirri had never particularly considered anything beside monogamy (most likely because she never really considered monogamy) but the idea of having a harem full of male cheetahs who came alive at her appearance was fairly interesting to her.

Granted the first thing she had to do was kick Reno out of it and find more people like James. Sadly, while Mirri busy taking having an estragon induced flight of fancy James and Reno looked about ready to tear each other apart. "Why don't you come down from that platform, and Grim Reaper Firecat is going to teach you lesson about respecting women!" "I'll stick my nightstick up your ass and turn it on!"

Thankfully less testosterone controlled men were on hand to step in. "Reconnaissance Officer Firecat, stand down." "Reno, put a sock in it. I was there to see you on the platform, you got cocky and he dropped the heavy end of the hammer on you."

Mirri snapped back just in time to see the two leaders acknowledge each other. "Sephiroth." "Tseng." "You have a bad habit of refusing to die." "My blood runs neon green with mako, what's your excuse?" "I'm too stubborn to die."

It was quick, like boxers touching gloves. Tseng and Reno were both on platforms above them. If they started shooting they would have the advantage of height. Of course two Turks against two SOLDIERS were about even odds. So with Alex and James as well it would be extremely bad idea regardless of having height temporarily on their side. Even Reno seemed quite aware of this, regardless of his desire to challenge James for the right of courting Mirri.

"This is General Sephiroth, he doesn't look so tough!" A third Turk entered, she was female with blue eyes and blond hair, and she looked slightly older then Mirri, but then, Mirri had gotten her mako and Jenova treatments early in life. Reno instantly spun around the female Turk. "Elena, shut, it. You don't interrupt boss when he's busy having his staring contests. I mean there are things that even I don't do! Boss and General have a history, I don't ask about it, I don't get in the way of it. Same way he doesn't say anything about me and Mirri."

Mirri instantly realized a chance to knock Reno's ego down a peg, and you didn't miss those as a matter of principle. "That's because we don't have a history Reno. To me you're just like every other sexually active man I've met, your attracted to me. The only difference between Joe Jim Bob and you is that you have some carefully inbred traits that have kept you from going far enough that I remove bits of your genitalia.

Not that I haven't been tempted, but somehow Reno you managed to walk that fine line where you just aren't worth my time. Much the way James walks the fine line of being funny to me, and being like you. Funny how every time I see you, the line he walks grows a little less fine."

Elena turned back to Tseng and nodded to him slowly. "So, Tseng, are these the ones we're looking for?" Tseng took one more glare at Sephiroth and shook his head. "Not a chance in hell. Sephiroth's the only sword user among them, and the President's wound wasn't caused by Masamune."

Elena turned around and looked back at the passage way she had used to enter. "Well then let's get out of here. President Rufus wants us to find his father's killer first and deal with rebels second. Whoever did it is supposedly heading for Junon, so we should, too!"

Reno looked at Elena and his eyebrows went up in surprise and anger. "Elena! Shut. Up! Seriously, with you blabbing our mission and our intel around like it's something you can find a public library I'm surprised Shinra hasn't collapsed yet! With enemies like you girl why do those people need friends? Ohh by the way Mirri, that goes double for us."

Reno's lecherous wink was greeted with Mirri loading blade into her claws. With that Reno took a step back and walked out along with Tseng and Elena. Sephiroth looked at a long vine that led up to the platform where the Turks had stood, then leapt up to the ledge. "Okay, get yourselves up here; we're going to Junon."

**OWAN: I'd like to thank all of our reviewers once again. I questions asked in reviews will be answered to the best of my ability and inclination, see you next Twilight!**


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8 Tricking, Searching, Inferring, Trampling Down Other People, And Then We Get The Hell Out!

James wasn't sure what to think of the city of Junon. He had what Sephiroth had come to call "Cat Sense" with the intended meaning being he had as much (more likely less) sense in his head as a cat. However James also had a cat like sense of smell, hearing, nightvision, and reflexes.

The town of Junon did not smell very good to James, a sentiment Alex seemed to be sharing by the way he kept wrinkling his nose with each sniff. It was the mako reactors and the pollution, the brief jaunt through the country had only made their scent stronger, like numbness giving way to pain. Of course there was something else worth smelling in the city, fish.

James could eat and digest just about anything, due to an ironclad internal processing system. Apparently Shinra had wanted James to be able to survive in just about any conditions, including having to eat grass. That aside, James did have a particular love for fish. Preferably in the western style of eating them raw and freshly pulled from an ocean or lake, not that you could really get that kind of thing in Midgar.

Thus, right now he was blocking out the scent of mako and focusing on fish, a distraction that Alex sadly didn't have. There were plenty of fish not far from here, fish and... "Those greedy bastards!"

It was not just the non sequitur of the comment that got every eye to focus on James, it was also the color; James rarely swore. James thrust a finger out towards where his keen nose was detecting the scent. "Shinra is disposing of chemicals and other stuff into the water! The oil they use to grease gears with and the like, it goes into the ocean! Those punks are killing off my fish!"

/Your fish Ragabash? A bird in the maw is worth two in a bush. I think similar things of fish in the ocean.\ The others had more constructive comments to make particularly Mirri. "James, I need to take you out in a boat sometime with a few sticks of Tri-Nitro-Toluene to a lake I know of."

"Please Mirri, the last thing anyone needs to do is encourage him." "He's right. I can feel something is wrong with this place. A pain that goes deep because it starts below the surface." James kept his stance, pointing staunchly like the statue of a great general (which was an ironic thought standing next to Sephiroth) cast in stone.

Mirri apparently found the inherent humor in the situation of arguing over fish while they were walking into a town that was in reality little more then a Shinra military base because she began to smile. Sephiroth on the other hand didn't. "Mirri take James and go look for any aquatic entrenches into the base, Aeris, Alex, and I will probe the less eccentric ways in." James and Mirri both saluted before they were off.

------

"Did you see that?" The first Shinra guard lowered his gun slightly as he turned to look at his partner. "See what?" "I swear to God, a dog just looked at me."

Even underneath the helmet he knew that the other guard's eyebrows went up. "While I'm sure the new president is glad you're looking after his safety, checking for canine saboteurs is a bit much."

The other guard scowled. "Well I only saw it for a moment, but hell if I've ever seen a dog like that in this town. Didn't look like the mangy half fed mongrels you usually see. Thing walked across that street right there head held high, turned and looked at me! Moment I really meet his eyes; he darts round a building and vanishes. Hell if I've ever seen a dog that big anywhere before!"

As he spoke the guard put down his gun and gestured with his hands measuring out the dog's length. The other guard just glared. "Maybe it was one of those freak breeds they're working on for protection back in Midgar. I hear that the new president has one. People say it's black as night, and that its eyes are just two big black circles, can't tell the pupil from the rest of it."

The other guard picked his gun back up and looked down it as if aiming at the dog he had seen. "That thing had yellow eyes, it was like a wolf!" "Ohh please, what is a wolf doing walking around the town with no one paying attention to it?" The guard just scowled at his partner.

"Hey, I'm just telling you what I saw, I mean you don't see dogs that size walking around, and the thing looked at me! Besides, they say some huge wolf escaped from Shinra's labs recently."

"Right, so one wolf, escaped from Shinra HQ, and then it somehow got out of Midgar. After that it made its way through the wilderness past Kalm. Then it somehow on its own made it past the Midgar Zolom, only way it could do that would be if it could run as fast as a chocobo. Then it made its way to Junon, all without anyone seeing it and tracking it down."

The other guard growled as well. "Well they say a group of terrorists broke out the same time as the wolf, maybe they're helping it." "Yeah, the wolf is so smart that it can tell who's trying to help it and who isn't. Hell, I bet the damn wolf can talk! If you see it again you better shoot it full of holes, I bet the terrorists are using it for recon. But you better buy some silver bullets, too, cause they say the thing that escaped is actually a lycanthrope."

"Hey, just cause I said I saw a dog is no reason to make me sound crazy."

-----

James picked up a small rock, and then with a skillful throw, he tossed it out to sea. The rock skipped a couple of times, and then sunk. To be fair it wasn't just a few skips, James was actually very good at throwing stones. It took almost a full dozen skips before it finally did slip below the surface.

Mirri watched on with a mix of pride and interest. "Jeeze James, how do you do that kind of thing?" James calmly selected another rock from the beach going over it carefully. "Well it's sort of a collection of things. You have to find just the right kind of stone. You need one that's mostly flat, but just the right amount of incline. Then you have to wind it up with the sort of twist in the wrist. At least I guess it is. I mean seriously Mirri, I can do anything well! Skip stones, swing a scythe, shoot a gun, carry a tune, dance, sing, hell you should see me flip a coin across my knuckles!"

There was a long pause and James nodded to himself, there were a few things in life which he believed in. One of them was that the people who made him may not have been exactly pure of heart, but they weren't particularly angry with him. Nor was he particularly angry at them, everything in life was a circle and what went around came around.

Granted sometimes the circles required a little jumpstart from the people who took part in it, but it all ended up even one way or another, no need to worry about it. In any case, the people who had designed James had apparently been cut from a different cloth then those who made Sephiroth.

Hojo believed in taking raw material and making something with it. The people who made James believed in rolling a perfect product right off the production line. No need for a child, a subject born to reach maturity in days was what they made. Why work on beating the humanity out of a child, when they could make something living, and yet un-human, thus giving it no empathy to break?

More to the point, there had been one crippling flaw which people couldn't help but notice about Sephiroth, he wasn't happy. Quite a few people speculated over why he vanished, but a central thesis of the thing ran that if you were going to make a killing machine, you should had to make it happy when it did its job. This was about the same time that those scientists who had been studying various types of drugs came to understand how they affected the brain.

More to the point, they had studied how they could create the natural release of chemicals through unnatural means. They had extensively studied the chemicals that determined if a person was happy or sad. Since modifying the brain to release a flow of chemicals to make James happy every time he killed would be too difficult, they did the next best thing.

Every so often James got a random blast of "Seratonin" it was possibly the only chemical term he understood, it was the chemical that produced happiness. Had there been sufficient length between these blasts of happiness, James might have suffered from bipolar disorder.

Thankfully he dodged that bullet quite nicely, because of some studies done on people whose minds had been thoroughly messed up by drugs, the doctors had discovered down to the watch tick the length between doses that would cause withdrawal. So James was in effect the ultimate hippy, coasting from one all natural high to the next, not that coasting was the right word for it, "gliding" would have worked better.

James' mind came in only two shades "Happy" and "Less Happy". The snipping of various parts of his brain, or redistribution of their function made it so he simply couldn't feel sad. Since this was an all natural event (even if it was the equivalent of a brain naturally producing THC) his brain didn't get damaged, unlike actual people who attempted to reach his level of nirvana.

Each blast of happiness had to be as strong as the first; otherwise he would turn into a zombie just waiting for his fix that was never quite enough. But the effect was as strong each time, and it was timed to the second for James' convenience. He was a well trained cat, no reason to worry, his food would be provided for, he simply had to do his tasks, his brain would provide rewards. All in all it was very impressive.

The one down side was that at times he would turn into one of Skinner's Pigeons. He didn't quite know what got brought his treats, so when one happened he would make note of it. Then at times he would repeat that behavior, and wait. This trend was only reinforced by the fact that sooner or later he did get his reward if he spent his time doing the same thing over and over again.

Suffice to say, these ticks could show up at the wrong time in the wrong place, but James wasn't worried about that. In fact James was almost never worried about anything. Sometimes when going over the notes for James' construction Sephiroth told James that his "parents" must have been experimenting on themselves to find what they where trying to reach with James.

That was the only possible explanation for the things James had been given the ability to do. Or maybe those scientists had actually been thinking in James' best interest (which was clearly more then could be said for Sephiroth's creators) because James could do just about anything he wanted to do well enough. Or maybe they just wanted James to have an active social-life whatever that meant, it was clearly something Sephiroth had never had.

Granted according to Sephiroth, who spent a lot of his time explaining to James exactly what he was (and James did try to pay attention) from having gone over the scientists notes. He said James was "Sterile" one of the many words that Sephiroth had used which had gone over James' head. Even more confusing was something about the causes of his sterility.

It wasn't anything wrong with James' body, it was just different. It didn't quite dot all the 'I's and cross all the T's chromosomally with normal humans. James had come to grips with one piece of it, he didn't have to worry about whatever he did with Mirri. Granted this being Mirri, it was already more or less self regulating, Mirri pointed the way and James followed.

"Think you could skip one out to hitting that rock?" James followed Mirri's finger, saw the rock she was pointing at, it was a good distance out. He arched his arm back for a good wind up, followed through with a nice wrist flick. "Splish" "Splish" "Splash" "Spish." The stone kept dancing across the waves heading out towards the rock, it came closer and closer. It was only one more now... the rock almost sank beneath the waves, but found some hidden strength (possibly from the way James was flat on his back urging the stone onwards) and it slammed into the much larger rock.

James' stone shattered into bits of dirt followed by a cheer from James. However, something bad started happening almost to the moment after James' stone hit the rock, for one thing, the rock moved. It was small, but as rocks were not particularly known for their mobility, it was quite noticeable, particularly when the motion was towards you.

It was followed by another more noticeable motion, as the spire came closer. As it did James felt as his if entire insides had suddenly turned very cold. "Umm... Mirri, didn't Seph say that animals could be mutated by exposing them to mako? Because I think that Shinra might not have been so great about keeping that from getting in the water also..."

Mirri quickly came to understand what James meant as the giant spire came forward. It was not just a spire, more of it emerged from the water, the spiked shell of a monstrous turtle. It stood perhaps 20 feet tall on great long legs like giant stone pillars, slowly but inexorably moving closer.

Its mouth held no teeth, nor did it need any: it was big enough to swallow either of them whole, which it clearly intended to do. James stopped looking for another flat stone to throw and started looking for where he had put down his scythe. He soon found its metal blade shining in the sunlight against the sand, and then he turned to face his foe.

The giant turtle came eye to eye with a being much smaller then himself, but just as determined. "I can eat you." James spoke the words slowly as he gazed into the things eyes. Sadly, the turtle must have been having similar thoughts, because it continued its unstoppable movement towards James.

It never reached him. James put his feet to the ground somehow forcing the sand to give traction beneath his sole. James launched himself and landed on the turtles shell without managing to skewer himself on one of the spikes. The turtle's head twisted to the side slightly, not able to see or harm James but knowing he was there.

James drove his scythe into the turtles shell and quickly discovered that the only thing he was close to achieving was blunting his weapon. The turtle was unable to reach James to harm him, and James was unable to pierce the turtle's amour to harm him. There was a pause between the two of them as they just stood there, unable to kill each other. Thankfully James was not all alone even if he was surrounded by water and a very upset turtle who wanted to kill him just because James skipped a rock into him.

----

Mirri loaded blades into her gloves and held them perfectly steady, her shot had to be perfect. She still launched all 10 just in case her aim was a little off however. It wasn't, the blades that came from her middle finger's slot on either hand slammed into the huge thing's eyes.

Mirri smiled to herself as the monster let out a wail of pain, it was simply a matter of aiming in the right place. The thing very quickly began to collapse into the water, the four legs folding under it. The monster was not nearly as strong as it looked just like most foes she had encountered.

James was a very adept swimmer as it turned out, and he knew when the getting was good. Executing a perfect swan dive he left the things back and entered into the water creating only the smallest splash. A few moments later, James' head reemerged as he pulled himself out of the water, and back onto the beach.

He looked disheveled beyond imagination which was an impressive feat for James who normally looked if not disheveled, at least far from formal. He hadn't kicked his shoes off, and he had somehow managed to hold onto a sopping wet hat in his right hand along with his scythe in his left. He began to dry himself off in the method preferred by cats of every pelt, with Mirri keeping her distance.

Once he had managed to transfer a good deal of the wetness form himself to the sand around him (and in return transfer sand to himself) he finally stood up and put his hat back on. The hat however was still soggy and was easily lifted off his head by his ears which where currently perked straight up.

His eye twitched widely, which was oddly in tune with his normal oddities. "Those..." James paused again as the entire right side of his face twitched at once. "Shinra... they're running an electric current..." James suffered from another twitch but it was slightly less noticeable, all things considered.

"Through the water. Felt like..." James' hat got whipped off his head by that twitch, it was quite a doozey. "4,000 volts. My god not only polluting the water, but they're turning this place into the world's biggest fish fry. If I hadn't been made resistant to

electricity I might have died in that stuff."

James had another twitch as electricity that was in his body surged again. Of course only James could handle the mater of his own demise so calmly, while still suffering from the effects of coming close to it. Another twitch causing his eye to go wide. Mirri slowly turned her eyes to a giant structure rising out of the water.

"James, I think I see where your electric current is coming from." Yet another twitch, in a part of her mind Mirri hoped that James hadn't suffered any additional mental oddities due to the electric shock.

"There's no way in I'm swimming back out to that thing Mirri. Right now I'll just be glad if socks don't stick to me for the rest of my life. Ohh yeah, and if I can get my ears to stop standing straight up that would be good to." Mirri looked at the huge structure that led upwards into the sky, knowing it had only one possible destination. "No James, I don't think we're going to swim. I have another idea entirely to go with. For now let's head back to the others."

----

So are we going to use my plan?" Alex padded across the beach, nosing the sand slightly testing it's firmness as he went. The Silver Fang nodded to the Black Fury and then to Alex. "Yes, from what Alex tells me the elevator up is always guarded. We could take the guards, but the elevator leads into the middle of the base, and then it's Shinra HQ all over again. That's exactly what we want to avoid at the moment. If we can get from here to the other cotenant without making a major blip on Shinra's radar, we'll be in good shape for being forgotten for a while. But if we leave a trail of dead bodies in our wake over here as well Shinra will keep focusing on us."

The Child of Gaia's voice sounded much like the Ragabash's except without the respect for the Silver Fang. "So we only have to break into a Shinra base. Get onto a Shinra boat along with the President, and spend the entire trip across the ocean without being seen by anyone who works for Shinra." The Ragabash however responded in kind. "It'll be a snap."

He made the appropriate human hand motion to go with his gesture. "Seph..iroth can do anything when he sets his mind to it." The Silver Fang's eyes where locked on Alex. "I saw you leap onto the Midgar Zolom's back. Do you think you can make this one?" Alex carefully pawed the sand, and then looked at the structure. It was at least a 30 foot jump and he would need to be around 15 ten feet high to grab hold one of the supports.

He snorted into the sand. /I can do this. The jump is nothing particularly difficult.\ The Silver Fang nodded to him. "Okay then. Once you get up there, shift to human and try to find a guard uniform for camouflage. Your goal is to deactivate the Shinra security system that monitors the base. If you can turn that things power off for about five minutes we can take the guards, use the elevator and be out without them realizing it."

Wandering around inside a corrupted Caern, Alex seemed to be accumulating a lot of experience at it recently. /How shall I inform you when I have accomplished the mission?\ Alex had his first doubts when it came to this mission after what the Silver Fang did. He reached into a pocket on his artificial coat (the pocket was the only useful part of the artificial coat that Alex saw) and pulled out another collar.

This one however was not made of silver, no spikes and clearly had an opening and closing device, not that Alex liked the prospect of it around his neck any more. /Tell me again why _I _have to do this?\ "Because you're the only one besides me who can make that jump, and _your _eyes don't glow green. In any case, this thing was designed for James; it has a two-way radio built into it. I'll be able to tell your general direction and hear you through it. Once you do complete the job, turn human and speak into it, if you have any problems about working the controls I can instruct you. Think you can handle it?"

/I am a disciple of Fenris, I will fulfill my duties and not quibble over how I do it. That kind of thing is for Red Talons, the Get of Fenris will win at any cost to themselves.\ The Silver Fang nodded as he fixed the thing around one of Alex's legs (rather then the neck Alex noted approvingly) and made sure it was tight. "Right then go to it."

Alex got a running start and managed to build up a fair amount of momentum even on the sand (his feet after all were designed to give good traction through snow) he channeled his spiritual energy and leapt. It was not straight up as in with the Zolom, but once again the results where the same. Alex flew through the air and almost slammed face first into a ladder leading up to the platform.

He wrapped his paw around it holding onto it, and in that precarious position he shifted. His thinner, more dexterous human paws proved far more adept for moving himself along the ladder. He made sure the collar was still fastened around his leg and began to make his way up the ladder. It was slow going as Alex wasn't experienced at this kind of thing, but he made progress and never once was he in any danger of falling. He kept climbing until the rest of his pack where nothing more then specks of dust.

Finally after what seemed an eternity he managed to come to the end of the ladder. He pulled himself up, and for a moment his eyes where drawn to the human flying machine. Not that Alex blamed the human for creating something like it. Humans were always trying to find ways to do with their machines what animals could do on their own.

It was not a bad attempt at wishing to fly, Alex had heard that it even worked. However the thing was still a complete human waste, what kind of people had time for this kind of thing? They had short lives, they should be bedding their mates rather then trying to fly. There where plenty of things to be enjoyed, but humans seemed to have built up an iron wall against that kind of thing.

The Silver Fang was the best example Alex had ever seen of this principal, the Silver Fang would never be happy. Alex knew what it was to be happy, he was happy after he killed Wyrm servants, and he was happy when he went arm in arm with the silver light and ran with the wolves.

Sometimes Alex wondered (not for a particularly long amount of time) if ability to deny oneself happiness was the thing that separated Cetra and humans from animals. If such then the Ragabash, being completely unable to deny himself the ability to be happy, was by far the smartest animal Alex had ever seen.

He wondered what another wolf would say on the subject of whether the Ragabash was human or an animal. He spoke the human language and walked up right, but Alex had seen other animals walk upright. As such only the matter of speaking the human language separated the Ragabash from being an animal, since this ability could be attributed to his upbringing Alex settled with the Ragabash as an extremely smart (or stupid depending on one's point of view) animal. Possibly somewhat like what might happen if you gave a wolf, no make that a dog the ability to speak human.

In fact that was a wonderful "analogy" as the human word went. He was fairly sure if the Black Fury threw a stick the only question the Ragabash would ask himself would be if he should return it in hand or in his mouth. Alex then scolded himself for allowing his mind to get away with him, and shifted back to his more natural form, people would pay less (or want to pay less) attention to him in that form.

He padded over to a door that clearly lead into the base, and clearly wasn't much in the way of a worry to Shinra. To open it all he had to do was get up on his hind legs momentarily and push a paw against a big button. The door slid open, and Alex ambled through as if he owned the place.

The smell of human was strong in this place, but it was also old, he didn't detect and humans currently living in this place. He raised his head and took another sniff this time searching for the smell of machinery instead of humans. It was to the left. He padded down the unoccupied hallway turned left and came to another door. This one looked far more important, and it lacked and convenient buttons to open it.

However it did have a slot that Alex had begun to recognize. It was a piece of machinery having to do with "cards" that would open the door. Alex had come to spend quite a lot of time dealing with goblins who specialized in deactivating the technology humanity was constantly using as a crutch. He closed his eyes and held up a paw before the slot. A moment later a shower of sparks danced across the door, and it slid open, most likely never to close again.

-----

The voice was almost a snarl at first. "I'm in the center of this weave, tell me how to cut the strand you wish." Sephiroth closed his eyes visualizing the controls. "There should be a red lever next to the large screen, pull it as far down as it goes." There was another pause as Sephiroth held the small receiver up to his ear making sure he could hear anything Alex said.

The only thing he could hear was what sounded like various lupine profanities. "In case you didn't know Silver Fang, I have little experience with the things you humans call 'colors'. I can't see them in my true form, and though I can distinguish them like this, I can hardly tell which one is 'red' just by the sight of it." Slapping his forehead in frustration was beneath Sephiroth's dignity, but his hand flickered before he caught himself and settled for an exasperated sigh; he should have seen this coming.

It made plenty of sense, wolves were colorblind. He paused for a moment, marshaled his thoughts and spoke again. "Think of James, anything about him should suffice, eyes, hair, clothing, ears..." There was another pause on the other end of the line punctuated by a small snicker.

"The Ragabash, ah, now I 'see'... that should do it. I should warn you, there is no one in this Caern, it is rather unsettling, as if they are preparing a trap..." Sephiroth returned the receiver to his pocket, he wasn't quite sure what to make of that, but forewarned was forearmed.

Sephiroth turned to the other three who where gathered around him and gave them a small nod confirming success. "We're ready to go. Apparently the base must have already been mostly emptied to welcome the new president. Mirri your on, two guards." Mirri was the embodiment of relaxation, even standing up her entire body was without the slightest tension. "No problem, dead or should I just knock 'em out?"

Sephiroth took a quick glance at Aeris against his will before he answered. "No need to kill those two flunkeys. With any luck after they tell their story to Shinra they'll be busy looking for us in the city while we're on the other side of the world." Mirri nodded and turned to Aeris smiling and winking to her. "Okay Aeris, since you don't have any siblings and neither do I feel free to consider me your big sister. Now prepare to witness flirtation 101, pretending to sell yourself."

With that Mirri went around the side of the house and began to make her way towards the guards. Her voice carried back to them, and it left no questions at all. "Hey boys your friends at the barracks sent me, they told me you've been standing up so long that you disserve a chance to lie down..."

A few moments the later the sound of two helmeted heads being smashed against each other resonated and the group finally went around the house and into sight. Mirri was calmly dusting off her hands over the unconscious bodies of the two Shinra guards.

-----

When the elevator opened Alex was waiting for them, as himself. Thinking that last statement made no more particular sense to Aeris than speaking it out loud would have. He was himself regardless... fine he was waiting for them on all fours with fur. It was a rather cut and dried way of saying it, but there it was.

Alex nodded to them as best as his current anatomy would allow and turned using his nose to point in the correct direction. /The way out is that way, it still has the smell of humans, not like in here, no excess of gunpowder.\ Sephiroth had started fingering Masamune again in the elevator, but then he had ample reason to. "Have you checked to see if there are any guards between us and there?" Alex flicked his tail upwards, coupled with what he "said" it probably meant follow. /None, they're all gone to some moot. Well almost all, there was one in the room over looking the controls, I dealt with him before I contacted you.\

Aeris noticed that a small trickle of blood that was dripping down Alex's muzzle. Alex must have noticed what Aeris' eyes where fixed on because his tongue quickly licked up that blood. Alex looked like he was going to lead the way but Sephiroth took over for him, and pointed in a different direction then Alex was pointing.

/Why should we go that way, Silver Fang? It goes further in to this labyrinth.\ Sephiroth didn't break his stride. "Because unless they've rebuilt the base, which I doubt, my way leads back to the quartermaster's office. I do have a plan for how we can get out of here undetected."

Mirri instantly grasped Sephiroth's point, but those two had been together the longest. "Ohh god, I thought I was never going to have to wear blue again..." "So did I Mirri, so did I..."

----

Aeris found it odd to be wearing a Shinra uniform. It was odd, but then she could have been worse of. Alex seemed to take wearing the thing rather unhappily and Mirri was downright annoyed. "You know General, I'd suggest that you wear one of these also, and let me be an officer, silver hair and green eyes have a way of setting off alarm bells."

Sephiroth unlike the other four was not dressed in a simple blue sexless Shinra guard uniform. Instead he was wearing the red uniform of a Shinra officer. He had taken precautions to tuck (and it looked rather painful to Aeris or at least uncomfortable) his long silver hair into the collar of the thing just about the rest of it hidden under the hat that went with it.

Sephiroth made sure it fit and then nodded to himself. "If the rest of you will follow me, I think we should have no trouble with getting on board the ship. Let's march."

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**OWAN: I admit it. I crave attention. Unless we start getting more reviews, we'll probably just move on to our next story. My thanks go out to Demonsurfer, our most consistent source of reviews, but if no one else reads it, I can't help but feel that I'm wasting bandwidth. So, tell your friends to read and review, please.**

**Reposted both to fix some errors and to reveal deleted scenes**


	9. Chapter 9

Twilight Perfection

Chapter 9: All your words, they make no sense. I find bliss in ignorance. The less I hear the less you say, you'll find that out anyway.

It worked. That thought alone made Aeris take a very long and very deep breath. Somehow they had gotten onto this ship and no one had asked them any questions about what they were doing there, they were just another squad of Shinra guards. As soon as they had gotten aboard they had split apart to meet up once the ship was docked in Costa del Sol.

Of course splitting up completely seemed hardly a smart thing to do on a Shinra ship out in the middle of the ocean. Thus Aeris had watched which way Mirri had gone and followed her. Mirri had traversed this way and that across the ship like a cat turning three circles on a pillow before going to sleep.

In the end she headed for a small, secluded, and most importantly, empty cargo hold that they had seen first entering the ship. She closed the door behind her when she went in, and a few moments behind her Aeris opened the door and walked in. What happened next was so fast that Aeris could barely comprehend it.

A gloved hand grabbed Aeris and yanked her into the room, and she saw light flash off of five metallic blades. The only thing between throat and getting it slit five consecutive times was a very thin Shinra uniform. The voice of death rang in Aeris' ears; surprisingly, the Grim Reaper was female. "You have exactly five seconds to live, so I suggest you make good use of them."

The door had already been slammed shut so that no one outside would hear Aeris scream, that was probably the only thing that kept them both alive. "MIRRI IT'S ME!" Very carefully, the left hand removed the helmet while the right one remained at her throat. The helmet bounced across the ground and the left hand lifted up Aeris unresisting chin to look into Death's eyes. When she met them, Death reverted back into Mirri Catwarrior and the bladed glove was withdrawn.

"Aeris, what in the name of whatever you believe in made you want to follow me, into a secluded spot, while you're wearing a Shinra uniform? James must be rubbing off on you." Aeris cringed slightly under Mirri. "Sorry, it's just I've never had any training unlike you or Sephiroth. So I wasn't sure of what I would do if anyone started asking me questions and I didn't have anyone to rely on. I guess I'm not as brave as you are Mirri."

There was an extremely odd pause in the conversation for Mirri to laugh her head off. When she finally finished she flicked her right hand to the side as if tossing aside the comment (but physically firing off the five blades currently in the glove) without a thought. "Bravery has nothing to do with me at all Aeris. Bravery is what happens when men stop thinking and start suppressing a survival mechanism.

Courage is what I have a lot of, and it's what someone uses when they do the right thing because they feel it's the right thing. That and luck, in the end you would be surprised how many things come down to a matter of luck. I'm courageous, yeah, but what really sets me apart is the fact that I'm impetuous and I'm lucky.

There is one solid rule of life Aeris, you never succeed at the things you don't try to do. Now Aeris, you had the impetuosity to follow me in here, whether or not you knew that I would try to kill you, and in the end I didn't. Kill you that is, I did try. But that aside, the important question you need to answer is... what's your goal in life?"

There was a long pause that drifted through the air, Aeris searched her mind, she couldn't think of anything. What did she want out of life... how was she to know? "I'm not sure, I guess..." Mirri cut her off before she could finish her answer. "No one knows Aeris, trust me on that. Your better off if you don't have a goal in life, it limits you. It's not a very important question at all and I knew that before I asked it to you. The important thing is what do you like in life, and what don't you like?"

That one was one she could answer. "I like doing this, it's scary and I'm not very good at it, but its better then just sitting around waiting for what will happen next." Mirri smiled at Aeris again. "Good girl. Nothing in life is as bad as sitting around waiting for something for happen, that's why I joined on. Besides, just because you're not good at this kind of thing yet, doesn't mean you can't _get_ good at it. All you need is a little training, a little practice and some help. I can easily provide you with some basic training if you would like me to."

Aeris nodded, and Mirri cleared her throat before she started speaking with complete confidence. "You already have one advantage going into this whole 'war' thing. Men think god put them on this earth for the sole purpose of sticking pointed objects into each other. However the dirty little secret is that men make worse fighters then women. Before I go into that, though, let me remind you that most of these things don't apply to Sephiroth or any surviving members of his Vanguard. Fortunately, Sephiroth seems to have vested a fair deal of interest in your well being, and he's as far above his Vanguard as they are above normal humans. That said, men have a lot of extra muscle mass to help them lift stuff up, but in reality they're nothing but big targets. Men move slower then women, they swing with less finesse, they get all emotional about fighting, and men find blood a real turn off. I wake up a couple of days every month and find blood on my body, I got used to it along time ago.

This entire world is geared towards making women more effective killers than men. If you can dance, then you can kill, and dancing is a much better way to train for battle then any sport men play. Sports are all about being "tough", and fortitude matters quite a lot. In battle when I decapitate someone how 'tough' they are maters about as much as whether or not they have 'guts' after I open up their chests like a fish." Aeris listened, and learned.

---------------

It was easy for Sephiroth to spot Alex. Not everyone on board the ship had gotten their sea legs, but only one person was holding on to a railing for dear life. Sephiroth came over and glared at him and Alex glared back. "I don't know how you manage to stay upright with only two legs on this confounded vessel."

Sephiroth's glare did not lessen, the boat rocked slightly and Alex held onto the railing, his feet slipping to the side slightly. Sephiroth rode it out perfectly well. "Your ability to maneuver aside, I have something more important to do with you right now I'll make this quick. Red, James. Blue, water. Green, eyes. Silver, hair. Brown, Aeris' hair. White, the streak between the brown in Mirri's hair. Black, the uniform I normally wear. Understand?"

Alex closed his eyes, opened them, looked around looked at Sephiroth again and then slowly nodded. "Yes, I think I am starting t understand these 'colors' now. Now tell me how you ride out this shifting ground with only two limbs to balance on." Another small wave hit the boat and Alex's feet started to resemble someone attempting to keep his legs under him after first stepping on an ice rink.

"Your trying to stay perfectly stationary, and to simply adjust your body. You have to ride it out like any other blow, don't try to fight it, let your legs and feet get used to the rhythm." Alex pulled himself up into a standing position and looked questioningly down on the ground as if still not trusting it, and waited.

He did better the next time the boat rocked, but he was still holding onto the railing. Suddenly, before he got another chance to practice, a piercing alarm siren went off. Sephiroth clasped his hands to his ears for a moment as did Alexander. Through gritted teeth Sephiroth spoke. "I just know Firecat has something to do with this..."

------------------

James had been given very specific instructions about what to do from Sephiroth. Find a place to hide, don't let people see you on your way there, and leave the scythe some place no one would look for it. James had followed those orders.

He figured the last place that anyone would look for someone, and the first place to be in case something went wrong, was a lifeboat. As such after a bit of searching James had found the unguarded lifeboats, tossed his scythe in the front seat, tossed off his Shinra uniform, and made himself as small as possible.

He somehow managed to fit himself completely below the boat so that only if someone would look directly for him would he be seen. He sat there and waited, and waited, and waited.

He kept on waiting doing nothing at all till eternity, and then he heard it. /Come to me...\ It was like Alex's voice, but different, more commanding, like Mirri's voice transmitted the same way Alex's was.

No that wasn't quite right, Mirri's voice had a relaxed and smooth quality to it, this one was sharp and abrupt. James followed it all the same. He got out of the lifeboat, and picked his scythe back up, the engine was only a room away. When he opened the door the guards had already been dealt with. /Yes come to me...\

James stepped carefully over the dead guards, his sneakers leaving a trail of bloody footprints. The door that had been locked and guarded was unlocked and he opened it, stepping in. His eyes where momentarily blinded by an impossibly bright light. He couldn't see, couldn't think, it scorched his corneas to dust.

He shut his eyes but it still wasn't enough, no matter how tightly he squinted, the light came in. /Yes my child, return to me...\ James finally managed to hit on the idea of holding a hand in front of his eyes as well as closing them and that finally managed to hold back the light.

He blinked very fast, drops of water rolling down his cheek. /Yes, witness my glory, the glory that these pathetic humans wish to oppose...\ James diverted a hand from blocking the light to catch the drops of wetness, they where new to him. He searched his mind, Mirri had told him about these things before "tears" they where called. James didn't like them very much.

/What are you waiting for?\ That was odd, all the other times the voice had held an invincible, never ending quality to it, this time it came to a very abrupt and startling halt. It was very unsettling, rather like running along a field that should have gone on forever but suddenly came to a cliff face. After all, that meant that the voice wasn't all knowing, otherwise it wouldn't have to ask him a question if it knew the answer.

"Umm... for someone to tell me what I'm supposed to do?" /FALL ON YOUR KNEES AND WORSHIP ME!\ The voice did not seem happy at all about James' question. Now not only was the voice not omnipotent it was short tempered. It was going farther and farther from godhood. After all, Mirri had never seemed to need to force James to kneel before her.

/What... are... you... WAITING... FOR?\ Now, that was just plain pushy. "I'm thinking, okay?" Some people needed to rethink their values of time. Because time was clearly not a constant the way people seemed to keep thinking about it. What with saying things like "I'm out of time", "I'm late", or the ever famous "Time is up". The problem with the idea of time being a constant was that it so clearly wasn't.

Time flowed around people and things and it was up to the people and things to decide when to grab time. Thus if you needed more time you simply had to tighten your grip on the time you had and pull a little harder, which would instantly give you more time.

Time was extremely malleable, it was simply that some people were so set on focusing on their preconceptions of time that they didn't have any idea about the reality of the thing. If you where so busy being a miser with your time then you never realized how much you had. The better idea was to leave your time open as much as possible and let each day be a challenge with how much stuff you could cram into the "time" you had.

Granted stuff did not necessarily have to be work or actually "doing" something. Stuff could simply be lazing around with a few good friends. That of course was the method James followed, if you let your notions of time control your life they you weren't much better then a machine.

Day in day out, doing the same thing over and over again. It was truly amazing how difficult it could be sometimes to tell the difference between Shinra guards and robotic sentries, after all because of those helmets neither one had a face. Nor did either one have a name when you thought about it, at least a name that you knew of.

Of course James might just be biased in that situation because of the fact that technically, he wasn't human either. Because he wasn't human he didn't have any right to make statements about what it was to be human.

Dimly in the far back of his mind, the part of his brain that was currently in contact with reality James knew that the voice was trying to say something. It sounded rather angry to James, oh and there were some alarm sirens going off. That was most likely because of something that James had done, it always seem to be something James had done.

------------------

Sephiroth felt it like a physical blow to his misdirection. No worse than that, no physical blow could have made him topple to the ground so easily. His mind was filled with screams of bloodlust that had no language, he couldn't think. What could he do against something like this, what could anyone do? What could man do against such reckless hate?

He clutched his skull as he lay on the ground, Alex was standing over him protectively. In wolf form his 'voice' momentarily cut through the chaos long enough for Sephiroth to comprehend it. /Odd... that a warrior like you is felled so quickly while the Ragabash doesn't even seem to have felt anything.\ Through gritted teeth Sephiroth spoke. "Alex... you can't... harm something... that doesn't... exist."

Alex took a moment to understand Sephiroth's words and he took a quick look between Sephiroth and James, and then he nodded. /Ahh... as humans say 'just so' one might as well try to sink teeth into mist.\ Jenova apparently was finally getting around to realizing the same thing Sephiroth had, her mental command was almost frantic. /OBEY ME, CHILD!\

If Sephiroth could have made himself smile through the pain he would have, and it would have been one of the very few times in his life that he ever had. The command had managed to "snap" James back into "reality" as much as he ever had contact with it, however not as Jenova intended it.

James looked Jenova up and down one time, and then holding his scythe in his right hand and made a gesture with his left that Mirri must have taught to him. /What does that paw gesture mean? It is extremely odd, to hold up only one claw.\

A fresh blast of pain spared Sephiroth from having to explain the various vulgarities of human body language. Jenova may not have had any more understanding of the particular gesture than Alex, but the spirit in which it was given was clear enough.

She let out another scream of rage, and ghastly appendages rose into the air, firing blue lasers at James. James wasn't phased for a moment, switching the scythe from his right only to a two handed grip he darted between them, and cut a huge chunk of flesh from Jenova's body. Various limbs thrashed in pain, James dodged back and forth between them, using his scythe to take chunks out of any that came too near.

Alex was apparently caught between aiding James and making sure that no permanent harm befell Sephiroth. James darted between the various tentacles that tried to catch him and dodged the laser beams other ones shot at him, all the while chipping away at Jenova with his scythe. In a rare moment that he looked backwards (just so he could make sure it was safe to jump that way) Sephiroth saw his eyes.

They were not the twin rubies they usually were. They were two flaming spheres of death, "seeing red" was a mild way of putting it. /Fenris in the Fields of Slaughter, what a son of a wolfbitch!\ The pain made it take more time then normal to translate Alex's meaning to understandable terms. That and the additional note that "son of a wolfbitch" was, in Alex's terms most likely a phrase used exclusively for positive connotations.

Sephiroth nodded slowly, this must be how other people felt watching him. There was James and his scythe, no just James and a metallic extension of his arm ending with a blade. Working with the quiet diligence of a machine, pounding a hammer against a mountain until it gave way one rock at a time. Slice, slice, slice, dodge, slice.

James, who couldn't give a proper salute if his soul depended on it. James, who had all the mental maturity of a 10 year old, if that. James, who always had a smile on his face, James who kept that smile while he was mowing down living breathing beings in the Shinra reactor.

The meanings brought on by those thoughts hurt almost as much as the mental blast Jenova was hitting him with. Then Sephiroth noticed that the pain was gone, the only thing left of Jenova was various pieces that had been cut to bits.

James turned around, and the flames in his eyes were dual infernos, and he smiled at all of them. Aeris and Mirri were also there watching, and from their faces, they had seen enough. Aeris was still trying to find words, and more amazingly, so was Mirri.. "Hey, Mirri!" Then turned back to his work, even if his foe was nothing but scraps of flesh now. "It's time to take this garbage, and get rid of it forever!" His eyes closed as he mouthed the silent words to a limit break.

A moment later flames danced around James in an ever expanding circle. Flames that scorched the pieces of Jenova to ash, and Sephiroth knew why. Jenova was like a hydra, if you cut one piece off it would regrow into another smaller version of Jenova. If they hadn't been burnt to ash there just would have been a bunch of smaller Jenovas soon. As ash, nothing would come back, that was the end of that.

That thing was most likely once of one Jenova's arms, well that was some small comfort. Suddenly, James adjusted his hat slightly, revealing his left ear, and the flames finally banished from his eyes. "Oh by the way guys, who's up for getting while the getting is good? I know were the lifeboats are!"

There was a long pause, and Sephiroth nodded quickly. "Yeah we need to get out of here fast. James lead the way, well hit the dock before this ship does and we'll scuttle the lifeboat." James nodded and instantly fell into line.

------------------

The scuttling happened a bit more violently than one would have expected it to. The "Lifeboat" was really more of a motorboat, and had a powerful engine. Sephiroth set the thing up to ram another boat of approximately the same size, and the five had bailed a few moments before the two connected and both were consumed in an explosion.

In the chaos which followed that event it was easy for five people (or even four people and a wolf) to blend in with the crowd that came to see what was happening and be quite forgotten. They checked into the inn, and then the left to do various things, except Sephiroth. He sat on the bed thinking, thinking, thinking.

Himself, James... Hojo, unknown and now dead scientists... mental weakness, none... That was hardly true in retrospect, but there was only one tool that Jenova knew how to use for such a task, a sledgehammer. If you swung it hard enough you could break down any mental wall that was erected or at least impair the person. Trying to use that strategy against James was like trying to smash a rubber ball.

Both the muscle behind it and the hardness of the tool were of no consequence, the rubber would bend and bounce right back. Jenova would never be able to control James, because James would never be controlled.

Quick thoughts of Mirri altered his thoughts off that track, no one could force James into doing something, but a little cajoling, he was quite vulnerable to. But that wasn't the problem, it was the principle. When Hojo had decided on how to make Sephiroth, he had left that weakness in, the ability to be effected by Jenova. Hojo was insane, but he was not stupid enough to do something like that unless he wanted to.

That fact meant that Hojo wanted to create a weapon of death that was not singularly loyal to Shinra, but could be made loyal to Jenova. Which meant that Hojo's loyalties lay with Jenova first and Shinra second. But he had been excluded from the designing of James, who would have been singularly loyal to Shinra.

Which meant that Shinra knew that Hojo was a risk, or at least the former President Shinra had. It didn't mean that Rufus did. Hojo was obviously on Jenova's side, which meant... what? Was that why Jenova had the President killed, so she could have Hojo keep his position of power?

He could only be thankful of one thing, if Shinra had tried to design a weapon of death that couldn't be controlled by Jenova at least they had done it right. No matter how Sephiroth tried he couldn't banish those flaming eyes from his mind, every time he closed his eyes he saw them. Flames hot enough to scorch a planet to ash.

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Mirri had left her jacket back at the hotel. While sun tanning had never particularly tickled her fancy, (Mirri found she frequently got enough sun for a healthy tan just spending her time out in the sun fighting whenever she wasn't in Midgar) there were plenty of other things to do at the beach that she did actually like. One of them was currently grasped in her ungloved hands.

The process of taking them off had of course reminded her why she generally never did take them off. She had to disconnect the almost second skeleton she wore with her gloves that fed blades from her pants and other places into her gloves. The thing was lightweight and flexible as hell, but getting it just so felt like it took an hour. Doing outright stupid things never worked out well for Mirri.

It was probably the trade off she had for her good luck when she did impetuous things, when she did outright stupid things they always turned out badly. Removing the gloves had been a stupid thing, and it had taken a lot of time to do.

Mirri had not however pushed her luck more then that, if she had gone without any weapons she was sure she would have run into a legion of her former comrades on vacation. Thus blades still rested in sheathes under her armpits, strapped to her legs, and two in sheaths in plain sight where her bodysuit met her pants. They wouldn't be much good for fighting with hand to hand as unlike the daggers/knives they resembled they had no hilt to grip.

However, Mirri had grown quite adept at how to grip them correctly so as to throw them from practice. A blade between the eyes would take care of even a first class SOLIDER. Blades weren't what Mirri was thinking about throwing at the moment. "Mirri, are you sure he's safe?"

Mirri turned to Aeris who had taken off her red travel jacket and just kept her pink dress, and laughed. "Aeris, that's like asking if any of us are safe! Like asking if humans are animals or something different, no one knows the answer! You might as well be asking if I'm safe, or if Sephiroth is safe, or if Alex is safe! Aeris, everyone has that thing inside them, it's called the Id. It's the thing that makes us, well us, instead of a composite of the events we've experienced! The only difference is that James had a perfectly developed id and ego, but his superego is the five months old he is. You should spend some time with him, sometimes it seems you have bit too much superego and not enough Id."

Aeris' eyes widened and Mirri smiled at her surprise. "I took a couple classes in psychology while I was in SOLDIER training. Know thy enemy and all that. Anyway, I'm proud to say that I got sort of good at this kind of thing, now watch, in James what we have is an inner child without any outer adult. It's not actually so bad, there are plenty of worse ailments. It's a self curing condition, till then we just live with what we have. By the way, you don't have to worry about saying things when we're all together, none of us bite, not even Alex; I'm getting him muzzled."

Aeris apparently didn't find Mirri's comment as funny as she thought it was, so she just kept going. "Anyways it's important to remember that James is just as much a person as you are. If we alienate and mistreat him he'll grow up with all kinds of problems and turn out just like Sephiroth."

Aeris was caught completely by surprise at the ease with which Mirri tossed out that comment. "Sephiroth was mistreated as a child?" Mirri shrugged, confronted with a subject about which she had no actual knowledge. "Well I never actually got a doctorate in the subject, I'm more of a back street practitioner, still if you spend much time with him, it's sort of easy to spot. He has a classic lost child complex.

In laymen's terms, it's a problem that you generally only see in orphans, but I've never asked Sephiroth about his past. What happens is that the kid in question doesn't have anyone to cling to growing up, so even when he's full grown he'll take just about anyone for an authority figure."

Now Aeris' head really was spinning. "That doesn't sound at all like Sephiroth." "As I said, Sephiroth may have an entire closet full of Freudian problems, but he takes it like a man. By which I mean you would have to hurt him real bad before he admits to feeling it. I spent time with him though, Sephiroth treated president Shinra like a father, and the President treated Sephiroth like something of an estranged son, weird as hell.

Oh yeah, that and something else is weird as hell about him. I'd put money that his childhood was screwed up, but he seems to have dodged the bullet on most of the early-development problems.. My guess would be that he had someone look after him when he was very young, but he lost that person somewhere between the ages of four and eight.

Still, I'm just more or less pulling this stuff together from educated guesses. What I know for a fact is that James will react to people the way he's taught to react to them. If he sees humans as being mean and spiteful towards him because he's different then nothing good can result. However if somebody has the inner strength to say 'who gives a fuck what he looks like' then I think he'll grow up just fine. Let's run a quick test hypothesis. HEY JAMES, FRISBEE!"

James, who had up to this point been sitting by the sand looking out to the ocean, suddenly turned around. He was instantly on his knees and a moment later Mirri released the orange disk gripped in her hand straight towards James. He caught it displaying his perfect hand to eye coordination and then looked at it not quite sure what to do with it next.

"Throw it back!" Armed with Mirri's advice, James instantly did so, slinging it back to Mirri . She calmly tossed the disc back and forth between her hands while taking a few moments to give James some advice. "The game is more fun if you make it more difficult for your partner to catch. Like this."

Mirri threw the Frisbee again, and this time did so with wicked skill. The disc sailed so straight at James that he threw himself to the ground to avoid the possibility of getting a concussion from the impact. "That's one for me, your shot James." James slowly got up from his prone position having used his hands to cover his head (with them located over his ears) and began to inspect the Frisbee. After a moment of careful contemplation he picked it back up as if realizing for the first time that it was a weapon.

He held it on both hands, before realizing that it worked better if he held it with just his left one. Then scratching the right side of his head, with his right hand, he made his battle plans. He threw the Frisbee so that instead of going straight past Mirri it sailed past her on an arc, though she still managed to snatch it out of the air with practiced ease.

"Not bad James you just have to practice a little more with your grip and with thinking deviously, the first one I can do something about." Even as Mirri spoke, she stretched for a moment, placed a foot forward like a pitcher taking the mound, and released the Frisbee. To his credit, despite Mirri's twist on the throw James managed to catch it.

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From there on in it was only a matter of time till what came about came about. James lacked the instinctively deceptive frame of mind that Mirri used to make herself so proficient at the game, but he made up for it with skill and speed. Between the two of them they managed to get an enjoyable game of Frisbee going, and Aeris even took part in it for a while.

It all went down hill in an instant however, Mirri threw another wickedly curving pass to James, who was determined to catch it through any means necessary. He had already proved that his sneakers could give him traction on sand, and for a brief moment it seemed that the cause for this was because he was running so fast his feet never touched the ground.

James leapt with a cry of desperation in a vain attempt to grab the Frisbee that in reflection was not so vain after all. He did manage to catch the Frisbee. However what he failed to do was land on his feet. In fact he failed to do so quite spectacularly.

He put his feet down after catching the Frisbee but somehow stumbled through a group of beautiful women, and landed on the man they where gathered around. Not to mention that his hat came off. So he lay there over the man's chest, and found a pair of blue eyes looking back at him.

The man looked rather familiar to James, but just not familiar enough to place his name. However there was one thing he did know. For the fist time in his life, James was afraid. He usually wore his hat because of the fears of others (such as Sephiroth and Mirri) that had been transferred to him. However, under that man's gaze, James desperately wanted his hat. Forget his hat, James was ready to hide his head in the sand to avoid the man's gaze. "Well, well. Surprising that we should meet here. You're not one of mine, and your almost not one of hers from what I have been told. Now how can that be? Can you even hear her voice calling you to go west?"

James quickly grabbed his hat back from the ground, and slammed it back on his head. Then he turned around and forced a small smile onto his face as he stood up and cast one look back at the man. He paused for a moment, and thought back to what Mirri had told him to do in this kind of situation. "Roses are red, violets are blue, I'm schizophrenic, and so are we." The look on the man's face was well worth documenting as one of James' top million moments in life. It truly was impressive the power of a little wordplay.

End Chapter 9

**OWAN: Okay, then. Because I'm trying to garner increased audience participation, I'm opening a vote. Who wants to see James use a Frisbee or other typically innocuous item as a weapon? Anonymous commentators welcome, if we get enough votes, we'll work it in.**

**On another note, I hope you enjoyed the James/Mirri fluffyness. Although this IS an Aeriseph piece, a guy with Seph's emotional baggage isn't exactly the type to throw himself into a relationship, so any fluff between those two will come a bit later.**


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10: The man with kaleidoscope eyes.

The entire pack was finally gathered and preparing to leave. It couldn't be soon enough for Alex, he despised this place. His home was the frozen tundra, nothing about this beach held any appeal for him; in fact most parts of it disagreed with him.

The heat dried his nose and made him shed, the moisture ruined his mane, the sand got stuck in his fur, and Alex didn't have any particular love for water either (cats where remarkably smart in that area Alex would admit). Unfortunately, the Ragabash had seen something important, and trying to get a Ragabash to tell you the correct version of how something happened without embellishment was about as easy as making a Bone Gnawer respectable.

"James, describe him to me again." The Silverfang was not happy; he must have met this person before. Sadly a Ragabash could only be trusted to carry the truth as far as a Shadow Lord, if not for the same reason. "He had blue eyes, really piercing blue eyes. He didn't look all that healthy to me... really scraggly black hair... why?"

The Silverfang clenched his fist almost hard enough to draw blood (even with the pathetic excuse humans had for claws). When the Silver Fang spoke his voice was filled with rage equal to that with which Fenris would have snarled when he was first chained. "He's already gone by now... That man was Dr. Simon Hojo, the head of the Shinra Science department; I think you two know him, Aeris and Alex. He was the one who oversaw my "care" when I was young. He's also the man who was going to use the two of you as lab animals."

Alex growled and felt saliva drip from his fangs. /That man, he's the greatest weave worshipper I've ever smelled! Hard to imagine a greater joy than his blood running down my maw, his bones snapping in my teeth!\ The Silverfang overruled him instantly. "No, no, no. If we ever see that man again, I want you to bring him to me, and I'm going to kill him. He has to be alive, and he has to be conscious. That's it, limb removal is just fine so long as he doesn't go into shock or die from blood loss. I trust you all understand that?"

Of course the Black Fury knew all about revenge. "Okay, but one question Sephiroth, is gelding in or out?" Ahh the classic Black Fury stand by, and they thought men where stuck in their ways. "In." Of course the Child of Gaia was able to look past revenge, a thing you could look up to them for, so long as they weren't looking down on you in return.

"Umm, guys, shouldn't we be thinking about where we go next, as opposed to what we do to a person, when we find them?" Nothing like a Child of Gaia to ruin something even a Black Fury could understand. The Black Furry however was swift in coming to a plan.

"Well, James said Hojo talked about going west, we go west, we find him. Granted we may not, but the farther we go west the father we get away from Shinra." Of course you could always count on a Ragabash to cloud a simple issue. "Um... what kind of west? There are all kinds of west! North West, south west, west west, umm I guess there isn't an east west all things considered?"

It took a very special type of Ragabash to be able to make such a statement, one who had clearly been nursed on coyote milk as a pup. The Silverfang glared at the Ragabash and then his gaze went to the Black Fury. "Mirri, you were raised around here, what do you suggest?" A Black Fury to blaze the trail, Silent Striders were generally used for such tasks but a Black Fury was not a bad substitute.

"Well we can go North East and hit Corel and then the Golden Saucer. Of course if we're going to Corel don't expect them to roll out the red carpet, they're still holding a grudge against me."

Now why didn't that surprise Alex at all? Black Furies rarely grew up in the packs they where born in, more likely they left other packs to become Furies. This of course was not unusual in and of itself, but it was still considered rubbing the pack's nose in dirt by saying the Black Fury didn't agree with their ways. Thus the old pack generally did everything they could to disrespect the Black Fury whenever they saw her again.

Alex could see no particular reason that it should be any different among humans than among Garou. Alex just hoped that the Black Fury's old pack would not bring silver with them when they came to greet the group.

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He waited in the darkness of the lab with the stoicism of the condemned man. It was not his life that would be soon coming to an end, it would be the lives of others. But that was of no matter to him. The pain of others was of no concern to him if it would buy his freedom.

A single unexpected sound broke him out of his reverie as an elevator opened to the laboratory and a man stepped out. It took a few moments for his eyes to adjust to the light, but when they did he noticed it was not the usual man. This one had blue eyes and black hair, but he was younger in better shape and wore a blue suit in stead of a white coat.

The man looked at him, and he couldn't quite tell what was in those blue eyes. Pity, fear, shame, some mixture of all three? "This is unexpected, I thought I wasn't going to be let out for another week?" The man shrunk away slightly as if surprised that his intended audience possessed the power of speech. Still, after a moment the man drew closer very slowly.

"I have your first orders. I want you to track down Sephiroth and the other rebels he has with him." That was to be expected. It would be difficult, but he excelled under difficulty. A renegade SOLDIER, two lab experiments, a half-Cetra, and General Sephiroth.

The SOLDIER and Sephiroth wouldn't die easily, first class SOLDIERS never did, he would decapitate them to make sure. Since the man was silent he finished the orders his visitor had started. "And kill them." The man cringed, what a pissant. Why was this man giving him orders? "No, I want you to join them."

An interesting plan, rather worth considering. After all, he had been told that General Sephiroth was all but invincible in battle. But asleep he was just as vulnerable as anyone else, assuming he slept, something not everyone was sure of. "As a mole." The man hesitated again before he spoke, but spoke with certainty.

"No. I want you to join them and follow Sephiroth's orders and only Sephiroth's orders. I never want you to follow another order from Shinra again." Now this was something he hadn't expected in any turn of events. "I'm afraid I can't do that, it's in direct contradiction of his orders."

The man reached into his blue suit as he approached his, well, cell would the traditional word for it but it was not truly designed to keep him in, it was for keeping others out. The door slid open and the man stepped in, uncertainty in his every movement.

Heh, it was as if the man was not sure he wanted to take the course of action he had chosen, but was sure he would succeed if he did. He produced a small piece of paper and handed it over. A quick scan and then it was crumpled and tossed in a corner.

"Well, in that case, I suppose I could do this for you. You are a very stupid man to hand a loaded gun to your foes and then to turn your back on them. If Hojo is being cashiered making him unable to give me orders, you should take the opportunity for all it's worth. If you told me to, I would go kill the new president, then the rest of the Shinra board, you could be running this company inside a week. So why are you letting me go?"

The man in the blue suit stood up straight at took a deep breath his eyes focusing on the ground. "I have to think that if Lucifer could free a soul from hell he would, because it's his prison just as much as any other sinner's. Being in charge of a prison makes it no less of a prison to you or anyone in it. Do you think you can get out of here unnoticed?" Heh, the naivety asking if he could go unnoticed. "Like a shadow in the night. Like a gust of air, west, unnoticed I will go west to find them."

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Aeris was slowly at least starting to get some idea for the pieces which made Mirri, which was more then she could say for Sephiroth. "Wow you sure weren't kidding, they did everything but throw tomatoes!" James' words would have been crass coming from anyone else, from him they where simply a statement of something he saw

It was also a very apt statement considering the great verity and strength of insults that had been hurled at the group, and Mirri in particular. Mirri had not flinched for an instant as an entire "town" had emerged from it's ramshackle houses to hurl phrases such as "Shinra's whore!" at her and had kept a very firm hand on James to prevent him from responding on her behalf.

Under her breath she had muttered her explanation. "Don't harm these people, they may be idiots, but they're my family's idiots." Now that they had finally broken past the crowd and no further indignities seemed to be coming they're way the rest of the group seemed to be following James' example in finally expressing they're feelings.

/Even for a Black Fury, that was a most ungrateful welcoming, one can only wonder what you have done to earn it.\ Mirri looked like she wanted to glare at Alex in indignation, but decided to explain the situation instead. "Well Alex since you asked it's a longish story so I'll hit the high points while we wait for the cable car to take us up to the Golden Saucers." James looked practically on edge to hear Mirri's past, though Sephiroth looked indifferent, he must have herd the story before.

"I was born Mirri Lufkin and one of the reason's that I changed it unceremoniously to "Catwarrior" when becoming a SOLDIER was that my family is very well known in connection to Corel. It wouldn't be fair to say we were anything like nobles, but my family was well off because they moved out from Midgar when Corel was just setting itself up, and put a lot of money into the town.

While this helped get the town started and made them some friends, after about two generations the friendships were wearing thin as people realized we also owned a lot of the town. We didn't have majority shares in anything, but as the saying goes 'we had our fingers in every pie' and we knew it. Because we didn't have majority shares we didn't make the decisions, at least not in the open, but whenever something went right we got a good share of the money.

The problem was that as the other people of the town started making money they wanted to buy my family out of the shares we had bought, but they couldn't because behind the scenes my family basically orchestrated things to make sure they went well for the town.

Sadly the people of the town didn't see that my family was acting for their best interests, and relationships were even more strained by the time my parents were in charge and I was born. To make things worse, Shinra was finally coming into true power, and it didn't' like the competition that the coal power in Corel represented.

My family knew that if the coal mine went down, sooner or later the entire town would follow it, and so they negotiated with Shinra. They limited the amount of coal power that was generated, but they kept the mine going, but the people of the town saw them as selling themselves to Shinra.

The stress of running everything from behind the scenes and trying to please so many people must have gotten to them, because they both died in their sleep, and I didn't have the patience for dealing with these people then, so I sold out my shares in everything.

The town got what it wanted, I cashed out my shares in the town, and left. I went to Midgar, the city was a rising star, and I was going to make the most of it, which I did. Because I was from Corel and who my parents were, I more or less had to buy my way into SOLDIER, so I sold my family's legacy for a sword and a shield. Once I was in SOLDIER I did well, and that's all you really need to know about me.

As for the town, my parents with their deaths, they did the worst thing you can do to anyone to this town, they ignored it. With their death the town got what they wanted: they were in charge. It lasted about as long as an asylum run by the inmates would have. Humanity needs someone who it can get behind to successfully lead itself.

While my parents were alive the town was united in their hatred of them, without my parents, the town fell apart into various factions. Those who liked Shinra, those who hated it, you get the idea. Those factions didn't have a prayer in hell in trying to negotiate with Shinra.

Shinra had started a war with Wutai as a way to clean out the closet, and so they took care of Corel at the same time. Burnt the entire place to the ground, and killed off some people to make an example of them. The town never should have tried to argue with Shinra during a war that gave them every excuse they needed to justify torturing Corel to the citizens of Midgar, who are the only people Shinra ever had to answer to.

So the town was reduced to what you saw back there, a bunch of shacks with people barely getting by, and what disgusts me the most is that they haven't been able to improve their lot in life from the day Shinra burned this town. If they had any real merit they would have rebuilt this town, but they don't, they have no leader. The only thing they have left is a hatred for me as if I was part of the squad that burnt this place to the ground."

James whistled in surprise and even Alex looked slightly taken back. Aeris was in mild shock as she looked at how calmly Mirri could talk about her own parents' death. Aeris looked into those eyes for the slightest hint of regret, fear, or uncertainty, and found nothing.

She had seen those things in Sephiroth's eyes the second time she had met him, but Mirri didn't have them, Sephiroth looked like he had no emotions, but he had them, Mirri had her emotions but her unearthly calmness almost made her something even less human then Sephiroth.

Seeing her explain her past did, however, shed some more light on how Mirri became Mirri. As if sensing what Aeris was thinking Mirri spoke a few more words. "As I said, I don't hate those people, I pity them. It's good for them to hate me because if they didn't, they probably would have all starved to death because they didn't have anything else to motivate them. To the people of the town I'm like one of those sacrificial virgins weighted down in countless jewels so she'll sink faster, to be thrown into a volcano. Of course when I'm done the score will be: volcano 5, town 7, virgin 283." 

Aeris wondered briefly if the ability to shape reality through raw stubbornness and willpower was a side effect of Mako enhancement, or if it was unique to Mirri and Sephiroth.  
As the small cable car came down Mirri boarded it along with everyone else and then shifted gears completely as the remains of Corel vanished from sight. "The Golden Saucer should be a good place to find information on whatever you're looking for, Sephiroth." Sephiroth seemed slightly uneasy as he spoke, as if aware of just how much better Mirri knew this area than he did. Still the moment the second word was out of his mouth he was just as confidant as Mirri.

"I'll look all over the Golden Saucers if I have to in order to find what I'm looking for, don't doubt that. However, I think it would be best if we split up, not to mention we can't afford to make much of scene entering the place." Mirri smiled again a she put her feet up on the empty bench on the other side of the car. "While I was young I got a lifetime pass for myself and anyone who was with me. Using it is traceable, but since the Golden Saucer isn't affiliated directly with Shinra, they'll have a hard time getting to it, not to mention it's under Lufkin, rather then Catwarrior which is where most people will look.

As for how we split up, I'm planning on visiting the Battle Square, Alex you'd probably enjoy it also, it's basically nothing but round after round of fighting various monsters." Alex licked his lips in anticipation. /Sounds like the first enjoyable use of time you humans have come up with.\ "James and Aeris you two should check out the Wonder Square, it contains less macabre modes of entertainment."

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Sephiroth leaned against the wall near the Speed Square and thought. After going this way and that, he had finally come up with some information dealing with someone matching Hojo's description, and as there were not that many people who looked like Hojo he was probably on the right trail.

Apparently the man had come in for the sole reason of seeing the manager's collection of rare artifacts, and asking if he had a "Black Materia" whatever that was. As Sephiroth knew (and as a General he knew pretty well) there were only five colors of materia: red, green, blue, purple, and yellow. Hojo might not have spent as much time using materia and instructing others how to use them as Sephiroth had, but he should have known enough to know there was no such thing as a Black Materia... Which was why as Sephiroth could guess, since Hojo rarely did things for no reason (there was madness in his method) there must actually be a Black Materia somewhere.

The simple fact that Hojo wanted it, was more then enough to give Sephiroth a very good reason for wanting to find it first. Sadly Sephiroth was quite sure that no matter how hard he looked in this place he had no chance of finding anything about where a (or maybe it should be "the") Black Materia was.

So for the moment Sephiroth was resting, he now had at least one thing to follow as he led the group in a retreat that was starting to feel like it had no other purpose than retreating. That wasn't true of course, even if they had to cross this entire continent on foot they would eventually get to Rocket Town, there they could...

"General Sephiroth?" Those two words quite forcefully derailed Sephiroth's current train of thought. He instantly snapped back to reality, cursing mentally, James must have been rubbing off on him to get him that disconnected from reality. When he finally got around to looking at the man who had spoken to him he was oddly impressed.

The man stood taller than James, but not so tall as to draw attention to himself, in fact his height was so average it was probably measured in decimals. His style of dress was similar to James in that it was totally monochromic, dark black hair, black trench coat, black sunglasses black t-shirt, black pants, and black boots. Sephiroth was starting to regret not taking Mirri's advice about wearing a pair of sunglasses himself, bright green eyes and sliver hair did make him stand out.

The fact was that most people, by sheer force of a desire not to get involved, would ignore Sephiroth, but that didn't mean he could convince someone who thought he was who he was, that he wasn't. So Sephiroth did the only thing he could, he attacked the problem head on. "If I am?"

The man looked Sephiroth up and down one more time, and smiled at him, showing a set of perfectly bland teeth that neither sparkled, nor looked like they would need to be replaced. "Then, General, I have an offer to make to you. You'll need all the people you can find to fight for you, and I intend to be one of them." Sephiroth looked at the man, and several different avenues opened up to him. Those involved with the man betraying him, and those involving Sephiroth betraying him, either one could be in the foreseeable future.

"What's your name, and how do you fight?" The man adjusted his black glasses slightly before he spoke. "My name is Niro, Niro Rose. And I fight like this." The man parted his trench coat slightly to reveal a customized .44 magnum, with a slightly shorter than normal barrel and an elongated clip; this thing was clearly higher-end than most civilian weaponry. "That's just to draw the eye General, I don't need that to kill any more than you need Masamune. Believe me when I say that I'm the most unusual SOLDIER you've ever met."

The truly impressive thing was that even though he was speaking, Sephiroth could hear the capital letters. Though it was impossible to tell what color the man's eyes were behind his glasses, Sephiroth had no doubt they'd glow with mako. Sephiroth made a snap decision. "Fine. Come with me soldier, let's see how you like the rest of the army."

Mirri was right in her prediction that James and Aeris would like the wonder square. James was definitely having the time of his life, chiefly because of the way Aeris' eyes lit up every time he did something as simple as make a basket. Of course this was also in keeping of James' view of life.

To James, the best things in life were not necessarily free, but they were simple, like smiles and stopping to smell the roses. No not roses, what were those other flowers James liked? He couldn't remember their name because it was complicated, but they were blue and smelled like cinnamon, cinnamon... and pure bliss...(**OWAN: **catnip has blue flowers and a slight odor of cinnamon)

Granted, around his twelfth basket in a row, James had perhaps not doing something quite so simple any more. Granted just like skipping stones, it was all a matter of skill and timing. You just had to take your time, line up each shot and then let go, he didn't know why Aeris was so surprised. Of course after making so many as needed he was throwing in flourishes to his shots as needed.

"Southpaw left hook!" Indeed as predicted, James' shot veered left once it lost contact with his hands, which was good because he had taken the precaution of standing far enough to the right that having the ball go left made it end up in the basket. Once again Aeris smiled happily, she did look better with a smile on her face, but then, to James' way of thinking, so did everyone else.

"Can you shoot one right handed James?" James took a very long moment to prepare for failure. Unlike Sephiroth, James was not ambidextrous, it was the kind of thing that wasn't just controlled by genes but also by training. James had a strong preference for his left hand, the way most people had a preference for their rights.

As it was, he took an extra long amount of time to line up his shot, and he started to wonder if it would be such a bad thing if he missed. He had already made a lot of shots, any more and he might start to draw too much attention (truly this was a line of thought that rarely happened to go through James' mind) from everyone nearby.

James tossed the ball and missed, if not by a mile, than by a distance not that much smaller either. Still after scoring so many baskets, the machine literarily spit GP out in a flood towards him and Aeris. In the blink of an eye, both of them were knocked off their feet by the flow of currency. "We're rich like Shinras Aeris!"

Mirri and Alex walked out of the battle arena, feeling suitably pleased with themselves. Both of them had been splattered by a fair amount of the remains of the foes that they had dealt with, and neither of them cared. Alex was in a particularly good mood, and showed no inclination to clean his coat, content to let the remains of his foes grace his body as a sign of his victory.

Sephiroth appeared as Mirri and Alex walked towards the tubes leading out of the battle arena. A man of about medium height all dressed in black was with them and Mirri raised her hand in a wave. "Hey, Sephiroth! Finally decided to give the battle square a chance? Alex certainty enjoyed the experience. I guess you could do it with one hand tied behind your back if you're worried about what people will see, and hopping on one foot." Alex reacted in a very different manner.

He sniffed the air once, and then his eyes settled on the man in black next to Sephiroth. He sniffed the air one last time to make sure and then he acted. There was enough space between them as yet to build up momentum, and that momentum when added to his jump let him easily take to the man to the ground, his sunglasses falling from his face. /Weave spirit, Shapeshifter!\

Mirri's eyes widened, but she subconsciously began to curl her hands into fists, ready to unsheathe her blades. Mirri waited for a signal from Sephiroth, however, before she went into battle mode, even if at the moment Sephiroth seemed as surprised as her.

He quickly assessed the situation and crossed his arms at the scene before him like a parent staring disapprovingly down at disobedient children. "Alex, Niro, explain..." The fur was rising all over Alex's body as he partially dug his claws into Niro's body. /What more is there to explain Silverfang? Shapeshifters are one of the many monsters created by Wyrm taint, it is my duty to rid the world of such!\

There was another pause as Niro chuckled even with his body pinned by Alex. "Heh, smart wolf. If you wouldn't mind getting off me, I'll gladly start explaining." /You can explain on the ground Shapeshifter.\ Niro shrugged as much as the situation would allow. "If you would move back so that they could see my eyes, I'll start explaining."

Alex shifted his head to side slightly (though still clearly ready to rip Niro's throat out) and the other two saw Niro's eyes. They were as distinctive as James' ears. They were no color. They were every color.

One moment they would be blue, then green, then red, then electric yellow, then brown, then piercing blue gray, which was replaced by an orange. Niro nodded at the surprised look on Mirri and Sephiroth's faces (well, Mirri's face, anyway. Sephiroth's face had returned to its normal blank stare) and chuckled again. " My name, for the lady, is Niro Rose, as the wolf said, I'm a Shapeshifter. Produced by Shinra, my first order was going to be to kill the lot of you, but I escaped. I personally can't think of any better way to stick it to them then helping you."

Alex bared his teeth in response to Niro's statement. /Trust a Shapeshifter's word? One can not trust their face, let alone any promise they make!\ Sephiroth's face began to deepen into a scowl. "You didn't tell me, and Alex is a Cetra. That's already two strikes against you. You have one last chance to impress me." Still pinned, Niro shook his head. "I'm not going to. I'd just be digging a deeper hole. So do you trust me or not?"

Sephiroth's scowl deepened even further. "Alex, get off him. You keep your eyes on him, but actions speak louder then words. Just because can't impress me with one, doesn't mean the other is pointless." Alex slowly stepped off of Niro, growling lupine profanities. /My eyes are as sharp as my teeth, don't think you will succeed in any betrayal plot Shapeshifter, no mater in what form you do it. Your scent is in my nose, and that you is one thing you can not change.\ Niro stood up, picked his glasses off the ground and put them back on. "Right, well with in mind, compared to Shinra I'm still glad to be aboard."

**OWAN: Thanks again for the reviews, and the support, and theahem word of mouth, but, as school is starting back up, the pace of updates will decrease rather drastically. I should still be able to post two per month, but that's likely to be the fastest I'll manage. If I'm bombarded with requests for further updates, I'll try to pick up the pace a little, but I can't promise anything. When I finally get around to it, there's a cast photo taken in Nibelheim, but that's a few chapters off. James suggests simply googling the term "Firecat" if you wish to see some more background of these characters, although in most of the content you'll find, Alex and Sephiroth are the same person. Long story. If you'll excuse me, I'm late for my nervous breakdown. 'Till the next perfect twilight, then.**


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

I woke up in a car.

Much to Sephiroth's surprise, James instantly knew what the situation was (which Sephiroth was fairly sure was a sign of the apocalypse). "Hey Niro, you finally got out of the lab!" Niro instantly embraced James in a tight hug. "Good to see you Mr. Firecat! I'm surprised that you'd settle down enough to hang out with these guys!"

James broke out of the hug and nodded quickly. "Yep! I mean Mirri gives a really good scratch behind the ears! You should ask her for one sometime, I mean she knows just the right spot and... oh, my eyes water thinking about it!" Niro slapped him on the back happily. "Glad to see you, because trust me on this, it would have been hard as hell to kill you!"

James leaned on his scythe and smiled. "Niro you always say the nicest things!" Sephiroth broke them apart quickly. "You two know each other?" James nodded vigorously while Niro nodded just once. "Yep! Whenever that creepy Dr. Hojo came to see how my progress was coming along he would bring Niro with him. Of course his shape shifting hadn't quite been perfected so I remember one time that he spent the entire visit in panther form, so it was a good thing I spoke cat!"

Sephiroth glared at the two of them, Niro was cryptic, James couldn't hold a secret to save his soul. Of course they said things about opposites attracted, but Sephiroth felt "Any port in a storm" would be a better definition of their friendship. Aeris was smiling as well, Sephiroth noticed, smiling like when she had found him back with that clone.

Sephiroth had a lifetime of military experience, and he knew when someone was about to commit a reserve to battle. Aeris was holding something back and she couldn't wait to hit him with it. He braced himself. "By the way, James won enough GP that he was able to buy a car. It's parked outside Corel."

Oh so that was it, it was funny the way James seemed to be making himself as small as possible and his voice was getting slightly distraught at this announcement. "Not on purpose mind you, it was Aeris' idea. I was just the guy who did the grunt work." Sephiroth let out a low sigh under his breath, Aeris was clearly spending too much time around Mirri.

It was if they had been in some kind of competition from the day they met to see who could surprise the other more and she had suddenly just scored her first point in a long time. At least Sephiroth had come to get a grip on the fine art of managing Mirri, even if it was like the fine art of anticipating where lightning would strike.

He pushed thoughts along those lines out of his mind, the mission was all that mattered. "Fine then, we should be able to drive rather then walk for a while. We're heading south now, we'll stop at Gongaga and rest there for a while. With a car we should be able to make the journey in about a day and a half if we leave now." Since there was no argument against that plan, they did.

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James looked up at the moon as it hung in the sky. Regardless of what Alex had said, the new moon didn't seem to be calling to him in any way, or if it was he couldn't hear it. Considering how good James' ears were, the odds were that even hanging up in the sky if the moon was calling his name he probably could have heard it.

What he could hear was the sound of the river they had crossed right before the group had made "camp" calling to him. It was a challenge, and one James was ready to accept. He took one look down, and braced himself, the river was almost a lake. It looked like it was over 10 feet deep and if it hadn't been for a section of it that Sephiroth and Alex had frozen before they drove over it (and fast at that) it would have been close to impassible.

He looked down, and attempted to polarize his eyes so that he could see perfectly through the water that normally distorted vision. The effect he got was close enough. He took one more look down, carefully removed his hat and sneakers, then dove in.

He had carefully arched his back straight as an arrow so that the water wouldn't push against him as hard. He kicked his way to the bottom holding his breath, and saw his target. He kicked himself a little lower, and then his hand darted out aiming for the middle.

The target became aware of him and started to move but James still firmly got a hand around the tail. He pulled the thing closer, got both of his hands around the target and kicked to the surface. He tossed the fish on the ground to wriggles its last wheezing breaths as he took to the matter of shaking himself dry.

In retrospect he admitted that he probably should have removed his socks as well as his shoes. "James how do you do it?" He looked up and smiled while he slammed a gloved hand down on top of the dieing fish to make sure it didn't get away from him. "It's easy! You just have to aim for the middle of the fish. That way when it starts to move you grab it by the tail in the end."

Aeris apparently was interested in something other then James' nocturnal fishing habits. "No I mean, how do you live your life the way you do?" James slowly withdrew the hand and grabbed the fish by its tail lifting it up again to check how much life was left in the thing. "I'm me, I'm not anyone else." The fish was partially verging on sort of dead.

"James, how can you take in everything out there in the world and not be surprised by it? How can you take it all in, and fit right into place?" James shook the fish this way and that, it was good and dead by now he was fairly sure. "Well I let it, the world fits into place on its own." He careful pulled out a small knife Mirri had given him just for this purpose from a pants pocket.

He continued his explanation as he began filleting the fish. "I mean, look at this river, do you know where it goes?" Aeris shook her head and James smiled as he careful made his first cut. "Neither do I. Not a clue. I figure it'll end up eventually going into some ocean one way or another because that's what happens to all water sooner or later. Life isn't any different for me, it's ups, its downs, it'll all work out one way or another.

You see the problem most people make trying to catch a fish is that they try to approach it from behind, thinking the fish won't know they're there, but it knows. Fish have eyes in the side of their heads, you need to approach 'em from the front. If you can get directly between there eyes they can't see you. That and when they dart they're darting towards you against the water and your moving with it.

That's the secret to it all, you have to go with the water, roll with the punches. You get knocked down, you get back up again. If you're going to stand on the ice you might as well dance. Make people laugh, you can't look dignified while you're having fun. Don't sweat the small stuff. It's all small stuff.

Grab life by the lips and YANK as hard as you can! But the important thing to do is remember to have fun!"

As James spoke he was busy slicing away at the fish with reckless abandon. "Because when you get down to it, life is basically us getting swept down a river with no end in sight. No matter how we fight it, we aren't going to make much progress fighting the current. We can move left and right some, but if you really wanna move around you have to take a deep breath and dive right in."

James finished slicing the fish apart, most of its meat and it's bones where already on the ground before him but he calmly dropped what was left down his gullet and swallowed it in one gulp. Then he licked his lips. "Sometimes in life Aeris, you have to do stuff just for the hell of it. You know what I mean?"

Aeris nodded slowly. "I think I may have some idea of what you mean. I mean, when Sephiroth dropped into my life, literally, I instantly knew there was something about him." James nodded eagerly. "Oh yeah, Seph is special all right. There's something about him that draws people in him. I guess charisma would be the best word for it. He's got great charisma, even Mirri admits that. It goes beyond tactics and strategy, and all that, its like the world revolves around him whether he wants it to or not. That if you stick near him, things are going to happen, and for me, life isn't worth living if it's not interesting."

Interesting was hardly the word Aeris would use to describe the last few days. Getting chased around by guards, Turks, watching what James had done to that thing... and how he had done it. James had been so cheerfully chanting those slogans while he had butchered that fish. There was no difference between that and the way he had killed that fish and how he had killed that thing. How would James kill a human?

"James, do you ever think about the value of life?" "Not really. Mirri told me once that thinking about the people your fighting in battle is a surefire way to get killed, and it makes sense. Those people sure aren't thinking about me, or at least, not in any positive way, if they were they wouldn't be trying to kill me.

I can't say I know much about the value of life, but I'm attached to my own. No reason to let someone else end it by killing me. No reason to end it by not being willing to kill a fish to eat it. I guess, I'm just plain lucky when it comes to life. Because for me it's simple, the life I kill to sustain or save my own, I don't regret."

Aeris summoned up all her courage, and she finally asked the question that had been on her mind the entire time. "James, what happened to you back on that ship?" James extended his hand, as if looking at his nails beneath his gloves and then nodded to himself.

"There comes a time when you are faced with two paths, and all the rest of the world is dead. When you will see death come to you. He will ask for payment, and you will have only two coins to pay him with. The coin in your right hand is the coin of self resistance. The coin whose cost is separation of your body from your soul. It is the coin that nearly all people pay with.

But what about that coin in your left hand, the coin turned down, what is it's cost? That coin's cost is inviting death into your body to dwell within you and become one with you.

The right hand is your life, the left hand is the life of those who would kill you. Some people never even realize that there is a coin digging into their left palm, no matter how much it calls out to them. But that left hand exists, it is just the path less trodden, the path you will never walk alone because you have death as your companion..."

James eyes where not a sparkling red, they where a raging inferno. As he finished he shook his head and his eyes returned to normal. Then he crossed them as he scratched his ear with his left hand. "Man, I really have to stop speed reading those philosophy and psychology books Mirri leaves lying around, I don't have a clue what I just said!" Aeris shuddered, she did, and somehow that James didn't only made things worse.

**OWAN: Ok, James says that you could also just go to blogspot and search for "James Firecat." He wants me to put a URL in here, but we all know doesn't allow it. We have another reviewer, yay! Yeah, James was a little creepy here, this chapter is to remind you all that he's not just a kitten, he's got a Sephiroth-ish side, it's just very well hidden, even from him.**


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

It's bigger then you, and you are not me.

Mirri looked at the car she was guarding with James and Niro and then self-consciously started whistling. She was not an extremely good whistler but sometimes there was nothing else to do in life. "So why are you so interested in Mircat?"

Spoke too soon, unless Mirri's ears were deceiving her something interesting was heading her way right now. "Well it's like this Rude. There are lots of girls out there who if you give a couple of sweets to and talk nice they'll open their pants wider then Horselaugh's waist. But not Mirri! She saw through that stuff like the material Scarlet wears when she's not at the office!

Trying to get Mirri to give in is like climbing a mountain you have to do it one small step at a time, but when you finally get on top it's a real sense of accomplishment! Nothing in life feels good unless you have to give something up or work for it. That's why, the more beer costs, the better it tastes."

"Beer tastes the same." "You have no taste for the finer things in life my friend." "Like chugging crappy wine?" "Hey that was a challenge between me and the big guy, Rufus."

"Um guys, shouldn't you be keeping your eyes open for trouble?" "Stop being so weak Elena! You make it sound like if we take our eyes off where we're going for one second that we'll run completely unaware into either the guy who killed President Shinra or Sephiroth and his whackos."

It was at this point that Reno came into view, walking up the other trail that lead into town. At his side was a man in the traditional Turk blue suit, he wore dark sunglasses and his face was totally blank. Trailing behind them was a woman with blue eyes and blond hair, also in a blue Turk uniform.

Reno took one look at James, Mirri and Niro, then rubbed his eyes slightly as if just to make sure. Then he spun around and gave a death glare to Elena. "Listen, this does not mean that you are right, all it means is that God is still holding his grudge against me. It goes way back to the time when I showed up for work drunk and vomited all over the President's new suit."

Mirri crossed her arms and glared at Reno. "Reno, allow me to say that first off, not in even in your wildest dreams are you going to be on top of me. Secondly, James: sic." "DEATH FROM ABOVE!"

James, who had up to this point been perched "sunning" on the top of the car, rolled over and did a fairly good impression of Alex leaping at someone even if he did lack fangs or claws. The man with the black sunglasses was about to go to his partner's aid when Niro transformed into a black panther and leapt at him, and soon those two were rolling on the ground trying to kill each other also.

Mirri took one look at the various men attempting to kill each other, shrugged and turned to Elena. "So how many people have you killed?" Elena looked like part of her wanted to go to Reno and the other man's aid, but at the same time knew that doing so would risk Mirri's wrath. "Well, none as of yet..."

Mirri laughed clutching her sides, a Turk who hadn't killed anyone? Now that was absurd. "You haven't killed anyone, and you're a Turk? Hell, Misaki, acquaintance of mine, got iced a couple years back, female Turk, said you weren't even initiated in till you'd ripped somebody's heart out with your bare hands! Oh yeah, and you had to do it without getting blood on your suit, real difficult. Of course the secret that they don't tell you is that you have to roll up your sleeves first. So anyway, if they aren't using that as an entrance exam, what are they using?"

The other man had apparently managed to fend Niro off, so he had turned back into his human "self" and pulled out two small automatic pistols. He then proceeded to blaze away with them, and what they lacked in stopping power they made up for in spray and pray. The man in the dark glasses was thus kept very busy. Even though Niro was spraying a lot of ammo the guns didn't generate a great amount of sound, just a continuous one. Mirri calmly took a few steps towards Elena.

The female Turk was still busy trying to figure out what she should do. "Well you see I scored very well on these test and they said being a Turk was the best way I could serve Shinra..." Why was Mirri not surprised? She leaves Shinra for a few days and already the entire system was going to the dogs. "Tests? What do tests have to do with anything? Battles happen out here on the battlefield not on paper. Where's the rhyme, reason or logic to this?"

As she spoke Mirri took a step to the side so that James and Reno could roll past her. Unlike the other Turk Reno showed no sign of wanting to disentangle himself from James. Instead the two were kicking, punching, strangling, and otherwise going at each other like cats in a bag. Wet cats in a bag.

"Umm how do you do that?" Niro in a last refuge threw his empty pistols at the man, who, of course, dodged them. He then dashed at Niro and slammed into him at full speed, bearing him to the ground. However, Niro was only down and far from out, he reached into his trench coat and pulled out another pistol. Then he somehow back flipped from the ground onto his knees as if the law of gravity had been repealed. Mirri shrugged and waited for the thunderous boom of the .44 pistol Niro had drawn before she started talking.

"It's a combination of devil's luck and woman's intuition. Anyway..." Mirri paused for the discharge of another high power round. "What are you doing with these two?" "GET THE HELL OFF ME YOU FREAK OF NATURE!" "HEY I WAS MADE FROM BASE STRANDS OF DNA UP, WHAT'S YOUR EXCUSE? BESIDES, NATURE HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH IT!" James and Reno were now busy finding the breath to hurl insults at each other in between attempts to maim each other.

"Well I was told that I was qualified to be a Turk and I could do the best to serve Shinra that way so I did." Niro had now pulled from his trench coat (how many different guns did that man carry around with him?) another automatic pistol. This one also apparently had a small missile for use against hard targets. Suffice to say this area of the world was soon missing one tree. Thankfully, it didn't hit anything when it fell.

Apparently it was God's plan for Mirri to need to give every women other then her a lecture on how to live. "First off, the 'greater good' and other such concepts are just words people use when somebody has to get the short end of the stick. Secondly, life isn't about doing what's good for everyone, it's about doing what good for you and you enjoy."

Reno now apparently had the upper hand, having a death grip on a particularly sensitive portion of James' anatomy. "NOT THE EARS!" Regardless of any pain he was feeling, James was at the same time using Reno's occupation with the upper portions of his body to pound the Turk's midsection. "See that over there, that's the sound of unbridled idiocy."

Mirri was also reluctant to think about the other sound she was hearing at that moment. It sounded like a gatling gun, but you did not fit a gatling gun into a trench coat. "As I was saying, these guys are here because they like what they do. After all, it's certainly not out of any ideas about the greater good." Mirri distinctly heard the sound of a belt fed weapon "reloading"; apparently Niro had an entire armory in his trench coat. Now all he had to do was pull a tank out of it.

"Suffice to say you really should reconsider what the hell you're fighting for, and who your fighting with. Because sooner or latter a blind will to do what is good for others gets taken advantage of. For example, I would keep Reno away from any credit cards. Oh, you also might want to keep your eyes on him whenever he goes near anything expensive, brightly colored, and easily breakable."

"SOUTHPAW FLAMING SPLEEN PUNCH!" "YOUR SINISTER WAYS WILL NEVER TRIUMPH OVER THE TRUE HAND!" "Clink." "Clink." That was clearly the sound of grenades having their pins pulled. "In conclusion, if we don't keep our boys under control, then no one will. Women are the thin line between men and the shiny explosive things which can destroy the entire world."

By this point there were several small patches of grass on fire, and several more trees had toppled over. "So watch, this is the correct way to get their attention." Mirri calmly stuck two fingers in her mouth and blew, generating no discernible sound.

A moment later James managed to kick Reno in the face, not a particularly debilitating blow but it disoriented him for a while. In that times James squirmed away from Reno and instantly made himself present at Mirri's side. Niro tossed aside the assault rifle he had been using, and gave a small approving nod to the other man in the blue suit who dodged countless shots. He then took his place next to Mirri, if nowhere near as hurriedly as James.

Reno, whose blue suit had been smeared with quite a bit of dirt (just like James' clothing) stood back up, took a moment to adjust his (clip on) tie and then nodded to himself. He then glared at James, who also looked suitably scruffy for having spent the last few minuets rolling around taking blows all over his body.

Reno looked like he might have suffered a broken nose from the way it was bleeding and James would clearly posses an impressive black eye for a while. Mirri just smiled at the speed with which the two had reacted. "As you see, a suitably high pitched noise, detectable to the decibel range of animals but not humans, it's generally quite efficient for getting the attention of the common male."

James and Reno started growling at each other from their respective positions. "James do you know what they do to male cattle to make them more docile towards other males?" James stopped growling and instantly contracted backwards trying to make himself look as small and cute as possible. Mirri nodded and turned to Elena who was staring in surprise.

"See? When a man threatens a woman, it is a domestic crime. When a woman threatens a man, it's efficiency. I do so love living in a period of reverse discrimination." Reno wiped off his bloody nose on his outfit without an ounce of tact. Then he blew his nose getting even more blood on his outfit. Once that was done he turned back to Elena. "Hey unless you two are about to start making out as a way of proving women are superior to men, we do have the former president's killer to be looking for. Of course if you two are about to start ripping each other's clothes off and making out, please, be my guest!"

Pause. "Niro, how many guns do you have?" "Enough" "Could you hand one to me?" "What kind?" "One without any kind of automatic fire. Extremely high caliber. Something that could take out a mans entire reproductive system in one shot." Niro handed over his .44 magnum, the only weapon he wore openly.

Mirri took a moment to get the balance down then extended her entire body like an proper duelist. "Reno, your have exactly five seconds to get some less vital, to you at least, part of your body between your genitals and the bullet I'm about to fire. If I were you, I wouldn't plan on sitting down for a long time."

Reno spun around and started leading Elena and the other Turk's off with him. Mirri waited till she had a perfect shot and pulled the trigger. The chamber rotated. "CLICK" "Niro, next time I ask for a gun, give me one with bullets in it." "Of course, but I felt in this situation a little discretion was warranted. After all, the organs in question have an IQ of at least 85. They should be preserved in a museum."

"Bah, men just don't have the stomach for true justice, your prefer to kill someone and be done with it. There are things so much worse then death in this world." Mirri casually flipped her hair to the side like a cat's swaying tail. "But that was good enough for now."

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Alex had kept silent, as he had been instructed to. However the way those two had acted had been most strange. The had visited a family, and he could understand most of the story, of how a mated pair's pup had gone off to battle, and had vanished without a trace. This was where the story became difficult to understand.

To Alex the pup's death was quite clear, come back in your glory or on your shield. It would have been better for the mated pair to have realized this and moved on then to continue holding onto false hope. Not that Alex blamed them, humans had less understanding of the nature of life and death than Garou did.

However the interesting thing was that the Silverfang and the Child of Gaia instantly found a need to leave the house. They went off in opposite directions, and Alex pawed the earth in irritation, this pack would be far less dubious if it could control itself as well out of battle as it did in.

Fenris bless the Black Fury and Ragabash (if either of them would accept it) they at least could work in tune with their emotions. Alex padded after the Silverfang first, the stability of an alpha was the stability of the pack. When he found him, his alpha was busy looking at his gloved hands.

Alex looked up at him and raised an eyebrow as much as he could do to duplicate the human gesture. /Something is on your mind. Tell me.\ The Silverfang slowly looked away from his glove and met Alex's eyes. "I knew him Alexander. I'm just glad Zack never took me to meet his parents. I watched him die five years ago, and I can't tell those two without getting them involved in this thing also."

An interesting contradiction, Alex thought. /So the dead pup ran in your pack?\ "Yes, he and I spent much time together." Humans! At least with the ways of Fenris things could simply left to lie where they fell, rather then dragged out one piece at a time. /He was your beta?\ Sephiroth looked down at his gloves again and then drew them across his face slowly.

"Yes. His death still hurts, he died, along with that whole town, because I was too slow. Nonetheless, I will get my revenge against those who killed him. I'll hunt them to the ends of the earth if I have to. I will tread upon them and crush their bones with my boots." /My teeth will claim their marrow.\ The Silverfang went back to his gloves, and Alex went off to see how the Child of Gaia was faring.

There was something very odd about her. The first change should come with the change from being an adolescent to an adult. Humans matured slowly, but the Child of Gaia looked old enough to have already undergone that change. As of yet she probably wouldn't even be able to understand the dangers of silver even if she was holding a pound of it in her hand. Alex sniffed the air to get her scent, and followed her, she was slightly outside of town.

At least they would not be disturbed in their conversation when he found her. She was up on her knees reclining in the shade of a tree with her hand to the ground. She looked up and gave Alex a smile as she partially dug her hands into the ground, careful not to disturb so much as a single blade of grass. "Yes Alex?" /You seemed unduly stressed. The inner wolf is greatly sensitive to such things.\

The Child of Gaia dug her hands into the ground a little deeper. "Let me guess, the outer wolf is very sensitive to that kind of thing as well? I think I remember somebody saying something about how animals could tell what someone was feeling just by how they smelled." She continued to dig her hands into the ground. "Seeing those two, Zack's parents, it reminded me that there are always people worse off then you are."

Children of Gaia, might as well try to understand the Ragabashes, didn't take joy in killing but took joy in pain? "You're right, Alex. Looking down, it reminds me of what I'm fighting for. Reminds me that it's never as bad as it looks at the first glance. I knew their son, I dated him, about five years ago he vanished during a mission outside of Midgar. I guess part of me was afraid that he'd run off with someone else, because he was a couple of years older. But if his parents don't know where he is... I mean, it's, I'm not sure. I guess misery loves company. Because, no matter how bad you feel, when you can help someone else, you feel better."

What in the name of Fenris was Alex doing? Running back and forth between two pups dealing with their first change as if he was their nurse. He was a disciple of Fenris, leave the nursing of ground and body to Children of Gaia, he needed to go kill something. That would make him feel better, there had to be some game reasonably near the town.

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Sephiroth lay back on the bed; it was moderately comfortable. The room was on the second floor of the inn, the door was closed and the window shut. He wondered how many days, weeks, maybe even years since he had slept alone inside. He tossed and turned on the bed, it shouldn't be like this.

It hadn't been like this in Mirri's house, that place had only had one door, and from the floor you could see the whole house. In this one room, lights out in the hallways, it was all too small.

He tapped his fingers along Masamune's hilt, but it wasn't enough; he was tired, and he just didn't have time for this kind of thing. He got out of bed, walked over to the window, and opened it. Then he calmly and deftly slid out the window, and dropped gracefully to the ground. It didn't take him long to find a suitable tree, one with branches strong and wide enough to suit him. He pulled himself up its limbs, looked up at the clear endless sky filled with twinkling lights. Now he could finally fall asleep.

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"You must be very uncomfortable up there." It looked true enough. Aeris didn't have any idea how or why Sephiroth did some of the things he did, and this was clearly one of those times. If Sephiroth had been asleep he wasn't any more. He rolled over, careful not to go over the limbs edge, and glared down at her.

His neon green eyes were two brilliant pinpricks in the night. "What are you doing out here, Aeris?" Aeris looked up him and smiled, it was one of those things you learned too deep to forget while growing up, a smile could go a long way towards anything you were trying to accomplish. "I heard you leave the inn, so I followed you, I just wanted to make sure you were all right."

Sephiroth apparently gave her smile up at him about as much value as love was in tennis. "Well as you can clearly see I am. So you can leave me alone." "Well what if you fall?" From the way Sephiroth's face was lit by his eyes she could tell that anyone else would have laughed at the suggestion.

Sephiroth simply made one quick statement with total confidence. "I don't fall. I can walk across a tightrope in high winds just fine, I don't fall." "I hesitate to ask what you're doing up there. After all, if you were James, I'd have already called for the fire department, and told them to make sure to bring the long ladders."

It was the wrong joke told at the wrong time to the wrong person and Aeris knew it, but she told it anyway. Sephiroth did what she expected him to do in response, even if she was surprised that his glare could somehow still intensify. "I am up here trying to fall asleep if that is not too much to ask at this hour of the night? Do you mind Half-Cetra?"

Now she could tell he was mad at her, Sephiroth always became more formal with people when he was upset with them. "Well it must be very uncomfortable up there, anyways. Particularly for a general." There, she could get more formal to counteract his formality. Sephiroth apparently possessed more glare settings after "high" than anyone else in the planet, his neon green eyes focused even more intently, and more downwardly at her.

"As I told you before Half-Cetra I am a general, not some pampered Shinra scion. I slept in the same conditions as my men, no, worse then most of my men to conceal myself. I slept in the dirt, mud, sleet, hail, and blood of the battlefield. I trained myself to sleep while artillery blasted overhead and snipers bullets flew through the air. A peaceful town and a strong tree? You do not have to worry about me getting sleep Half-Cetra. Unless you insist on talking to me up to all hours of the morning."

Sephiroth's words alone where acidic enough to have melted through solid steel. Aeris had been told a thing or two about stroking cats the wrong way, better to just leave them alone. So she walked away and left Sephiroth in his tree, let him find out how to climb down in the morning on his own.

OWAN: Well, I'm back. For the first time, I'm going to respond to my supporters in an author's note!

**Ok, here we go…**

**Cal: Yeah, we're just full of surprises, aren't we…**

**Sulphurya: Believe it or not, James is based fairly closely on my co-author, James. He writes all his own dialogue, except for rare exceptions. Never seen him wear red, though…**

**SSJ4 Sailor Menz: Glad to have you on board, too. Those were actually James' views, not mine. Mine are more like Sephiroth's. "Life's a bitch, but it'll leave you alone if you smack it with a rolled-up newspaper."**

**James and I will be releasing at least two more stories, no official date set for those, but only one of them will be listed under Final Fantasy. More updates on this matter once we actually decide what we're going to do with it.**


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13 In the clearing stands a boxer, and a fighter by his trade.

Alex inhaled deeply. It was a human expression, but like most human expressions that remained over long periods of time, it was an apt one. In this case "there's no place like home" rang firmly in his ears. Three straight days of driving since they had left behind the last town, but they were finally back.

The smell of the canyon was enough to make him wonder why he had ever left. Of course a few moments later his task was brought back to him, and he knew why he had left. "We're sorry, but the canyon has no room for outsiders at the moment." The Silver Fang had been leading, but he stepped aside so that the guard could see Alex. /These humans are with me, and it is sad indeed to see the hospitality of my homeland so diminished.\

Alex didn't know the name of all the humans who lived in the canyon, but there was hardly a child who didn't know who Alex was, a fact made all the more obvious by the stricken expression on the man's face. "Oh! Excuse me Alexander, was your mission successful?" Alex nodded; his mission had been a self appointed task, but it was critical nonetheless. He had succeeded in his mission, and the worst possibility had been proven true.

/Yes I was. It saddens my heart to say it, but I will not be long to rest here. In times of war those of Fenris make up the vanguard of Gaia's forces.\ The man nodded, whoever he was he knew a good deal of how to interpret Alex's "words". "We thought as much when it took you so long to return, some even said you had died." Alex scoffed as best as he could with a wolf's vocal chords. /Don't call a wolf dead till you see its bones bleaching in the noonday sun. Are my chambers prepared?\

The man stood to the side and nodded. "Yes of course, no one has disturbed them, shall I prepare rooms for your companions?" /Later, for now there is something they must see.\ The man moved to the side and nodded. The Ragabash apparently could smell the same sense of freedom in the air that Alex could.

That or he was about to make some remarkably Ragabash statement. "Let's see, we've been: ignored, electrocuted, shot at, sneered at, scoffed at, and just plain hunted. About time that we finally find a place in the world where we get treated like nobles. Granted, we were pretty well treated at the Gold Saucer, but still, this goes a long way towards making up for Junon!"

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Niro followed Alex as he led the way, they had spent close to a week together now. If Alex wasn't exactly friendly he clearly wasn't making plans to kill him any more, which was doubtless a step in the right direction. Of course that could just be the pacifying effect that the Canyon seemed to have.

Alex led them through various tunnels that seemed to have been carved right out of the living rock. It somehow was even more impressive then Midgar, because it had the feel of being done without tools. Just pure human effort, or something close to it. Niro would have to ask Alex how, particularly while he was in a good mood. After all, besides the fact that he could produce any weapon he needed, his other main strength in battle was turning into ferocious monsters.

If some kind of monster were the cause of this canyon's creation out of what once was clearly a mountain, he should know about it. Particularly if records still existed of them, or, better yet, skeletons. Something that could carve these tunnels could easily tear through a Shinra reactor as well. Eventually, they entered the last thing Niro would have expected Alex to call his home.

It was a room filled with various switches, and books stacked on high bookcases. If it belonged to Alex he would have expected bloodstains, dead bodies, partially eaten animals, and suchlike. Granted, the room looked like it hadn't been touched in a year or more, which went along just fine with Niro's conceptions of Alex.

Alex padded his way over to a small switch and pulled it. A moment later a holographic image of the world, or at least a fairly good facsimile appeared. /This is powered by nothing less then pure gnosis, or spiritual energy. Gnosis is normally used as a spiritual battery for the use of one's power. Sadly the art of transferring Gnosis into power for actual machines is long lost to the world. However, the machines are still functional and can be recharged with gnosis, even if even I am not quite sure how. The exact specifics of this device are not the issue here, this world is. This entire world, exists through a delicate balance.\ As he spoke Alex gripped another lever with his teeth and pulled it down, causing green lights to begin to dance across the image of the world.

/If you disregard bones, blood, and the like, then there is something that fundamentally makes all things the same. Understand?\ James took off his hat, and began to scratch his left ear with his left hand. It was a gesture that Niro had grown used to seeing, it was also one of the ways that nature warned you about what would come next. Like when skunks raised their tails, or the quiet before a storm. In this case the warning was that a very Firecat moment was coming.

"You mean like grey matter, or in my case red matter, or Niro's black matter?" Red matter, that was a good one, it ranked right up there with "The world wouldn't be in such a bad place if guns where free, but bullets cost 100,000 gill each. That way if anyone was going to shoot someone else, they would need a DAMN good reason to spend that much."

Alex growled under his breath. /No Ragabash, something is out there; everything in the world from the smallest bug to the tallest tree has something in it that makes it live. A force that enters into it and makes it live, and leaves when it dies. No one has ever known what the true name is, but it makes up the blood of the planet.

The Planet's blood is called 'The Lifestream' it distributes spiritual energy to everything in creation. Recently, I have felt a weakness of my gnosis, and I was far too young for such a thing to happen. I went out to find out why, and I found my answers in Midgar. Mako power, disgusting beyond my wildest dreams.

What they do is nothing short of murder, taking Gaia's lifeblood, changing it into something to run machines. Do any of you realize just what this means/ Sephiroth clenched his fist and gave an impressive growl for a human set of vocal chords. "I knew that mako power was bad for this world, but never that bad. They keep at it, and this entire world will shrivel up and die."

Mirri shook her head, slowly. "Mako power drains the earth, yeah. But apparently none of you have ever lived in Corel when the coal power was going. Ain't anything particularly friendly to the world about it, either. So is it just me or are humans just plain destructive to the world regardless what we do?"

Alex seemed caught as if half of him had been expecting that and half of him hadn't. /Humans. Do not blame yourselves for the failings of your kind. Suffice to say however, long ago, this world was at peace, even the Weaver, the force of order and the Wyld, the force of nature were in, if not harmony, then at least balance.

But then a third force came to act on this world, the Wyrm. I believe you know her as Jenova. She exists to bring catastrophe to this world, and since she has come to this world, she has had but one goal: to destroy it. To those ends she has influenced the Weaver, making it dangerous to this world.

Only the Wyld remains pure to its original purpose. This war you fight against the Weaver, it has gone on since before you can possible comprehend. Know that you are fighting against a being with cunning beyond human years. We may not have her cunning, but we have our strength. Let us stand together in these dark days. Days when ancient evils are once again released into the world, and Gaia herself grows weak. Do not cling to hope, for it has forsaken this world. You may go now.\

They began to exit, Sephiroth first, eyes blazing despite his outwardly regained composure. Aeris followed, looking not quite sure what to make of what she had heard. James and Mirri left together. Which just left Niro and Alex. Niro closed his eyes, and turned into a panther, a panther with eyes and fur as black as night. With a panther's vocal chords he "spoke". "You don't trust me."

Alex growled in response. /Do you speak wolf?\ "Not like this, and I prefer this form to a lupine one, but I understand it. You speak cat?" Alex flicked an ear in disdain. "I speak the language of every animal in the world." Niro looked Alex right in the eye, black eyes meeting golden.

"Very well then, just making sure we understand each other. Now, you don't trust me. There is a saying among humans for times like the ones you have described 'we must all hang together, or assuredly we will all hang separately.' Now when I'm like this, I have all the animal abilities you have. Like being able to tell emotions by smell. It's not just me, you're suspicious of this entire group. Why?"

Alex let out a low rumble in his throat as he looked at the door through which the others had left. "There is a reason the Shapeshifters no longer exist in this world. Jenova created a great many monsters in this world, including those like you. However, in the end she made something even more treacherous then you, humans."

"So that's why you don't trust them. You're off living in your own paranoid world. Who needs to worry about a Shapeshifter when you can't even look around without seeing monsters." "Humans are a race most hard to understand. At least with you Shapeshifter, the line is well drawn." "Yeah, we're the best of enemies."

Alex nodded his assent to Niro's statement. "Humans have no connection to nature. Their minds are clouded and unable to see the strands and dangers of the corrupted Weaver. You move along those strands like a spider. The true danger of the humans is their inability to see the dangers that lie beyond every single choice. So tell me Shapeshifter, what do you think of humans?"

Niro padded over to the lever that was still causing green lights to flicker across the globe. He then gripped the lever with his teeth as he had seen Alex do, and pulled it up causing the green lights to stop. "I am here to kill. I'd say that makes me just as much a part of your system as anyone else." Alex made padded over to Niro, and pressed a paw on a button and made the world vanish.

"Fair enough. The Ragabash--- James, do you feel like him? You can't tell humans apart from anything else, or you don't care to. Predators exist to kill and mate, intelligence makes no difference. Humans use their power to subdue instead of to kill, and that is why they are dangerous. Let us kill, Shapeshifter."

Alex growled from deep at his throat and then suddenly leapt at Niro, it was an action Niro had seem coming just in time to plan for it. Niro leapt to meet Alex, and the feline blur of black met with the canine one of white. Alex's claws dug through Niro's skin, and Niro did the same, fending Alex's jaws of with his front two paws. He tried to rip a chunk from Alex's front but soon discovered a major impediment. Wolves were not exactly known for having manes the way lions did, but Alex's was deep enough.

All Niro managed to rip was a chunk of white fur. Then the two slammed to the ground and rolled away from each other. Both of them where bleeding in various places, though where exactly was more obvious on Alex. /You don't shift, I can't regenerate, lets see if you're an animal.\ The two circled each other in the huge room, looking for a weakness. Niro had an advantage at that, he could see where Alex was bleeding.

Alex's wounds where mostly on his belly, which meant that Niro had to get underneath him again. He faked to the left and then dashed to the right, most of his wounds where actually on his right, he had been waving them right in Alex's face. But even with wolf eyes Alex couldn't see dark red blood on night black fur. He came around and Alex twisted to meet him. Alex raised himself up to fall on Niro using his greater weight, (As Alex was a lot bigger then any normal size panther) but Niro was faster then him.

In fact, Alex had just given Niro a clear shot at the target that he wanted to get at most. Niro slammed full speed into Alex as he descended. He raked his claws along Alex's chest as Alex's went down Niro's side. Niro tore a chunk out of Alex' shoulder, Alex snapped at one of Niro's paws, crushing the bones to dust.

Then they hit the ground, they were both much more heavily wounded now. Alex had blood flowing from his chest, and his breathing was more ragged. Not that Niro was that much better off, he almost blacked out each time he put pressure on the paw Alex had attacked.

No more circling, the two glared at each other, waiting to see who would deal a final blow to the other first. "Hey guys, are you have a staring contest?"

Good old James, complete and total disregard for blood being spilled on the floor gashes on fur, mangled paws, and the blood on their claws and jaws. Alex's eyes and ears drooped at James' statement. "Your Ragabash is remarkably good at what he does."

Niro nodded, Alex was still talking rather then sending his thoughts, Niro wondered if Alex knew that James knew wolf. "Yeah, when he actually does something, he does it well. It's the first part that's hard for him." James who had been listening, and understanding the conversation nodded his agreement to Niro's statement. The truly impressive thing was that James, with his set of vocal chords could bark, yip, and growl in perfect wolf.

"Yeah, when a guy has to do something, he might as well do it right even if he only does that thing. But would one of you two mind telling me what I did?" Now that shocked every fiber of Alex's being, Niro could see it in his eyes and smell it. /Did, he just?\ Alex sent that one personally to Niro so that James couldn't hear it.

"Yes he did. James speaks freaking tongues when he wants to." To further that point, James dictated his next masterpiece of mental misfires in the mews, chirps, purrs, and hisses that make up the language of cats, from a human mouth. "Yeah, it'd be sorta freaky if I knew how I do it!"

Niro shifted back to human, slightly decreasing the wounds he had suffered; his sides where still wounded, and his hand would have to be splinted, but at least the bones were there again. "Don't even bother asking James for an answer Alex. It's like asking a cat how they always land on their feet." The chirps, caws, and other things coming from James mouth were quite elaborate, apparently he was talking in bird now.

"So, yeah, if you guys are busy then I'll just be on my way then." Alex pawed the ground either irritated by his wounds or by James words. "Yes, leave us." James nodded and let himself out as silently as he had let himself in. Alex closed his eyes, and though the transformation took more time, the end result was just as complete as Niro's, he now stood before Niro, fully human.

"As I was saying, your Ragabash friend has very deep sleeves, it's too bad no one knows what he will pull out of them." Niro nodded and pulled some bandages from a pocket and began binding his left hand as he spoke. "Yep, after all, Lord knows he doesn't have any idea what he'll do next either. So tell me, you don't trust them, you don't trust me, who do you trust?"

Alex growled slightly as the wounds Niro dealt him vanished completely, damn his regeneration was impressive. "I am on no one's side, because no one is on my side. The Black Fury is right, humans may yet be the death of this world regardless of what they wish. They come with fire and axes to chop down trees, they come with their guns and collars to 'domesticate' animals, killing the inner spirit. What kind of being is this thing called man?" Niro nodded slowly, he had been made by humans, to kill humans, he was well versed with the odd nature of humanity.

"Heteromorphs, nightbreeders, specters, lycanthropes, halfmen, we're all something other then human, we're all Midians. It's something that I think binds us together a lot more tightly then humans ever have been by their humanity. There's just one difference between you and me Alexander. I was made, trained, equipped, commanded, and 'born' of humans. You say the world is coming to an end? I doubt anyone can disagree with you in a world where humans aim to create monsters to use against each other." Alex shook his head as he looked Niro in the eye. "I think not. The world has always been filled with humanity's cheap imitations. You would call yourself a Midian, do so, but remember this: **I** am Garou."

Niro just smiled at Alex as he looked at the books lining the walls. "Well I say this world has only three kinds of living organisms, animals, humans, and Midians, we who dance on the line between those first two. We have human intelligence, but use it for animal goals, we have no desire for wealth or subjects.

What we just did, that dance of death is our art. There is a war coming, and it is a deadly time for Midians like us, most of all. If we lose this war, then all life can be wiped out in the single blink of an eye. If we win though, there is another danger that we must be aware of. We Midians once fought amongst ourselves, great wars, great battles great heroes, and what did we get in return?

While we where busy burning the world to ash, humans were planning to rise from that ash. The world was stolen from us, humans with their 'Civilization' rose up. We were banished into children's stories and tales to frighten the foolish. When this war ends, it could be no different. There will be no final night for us Midians, only the endless dusk of slavery.

I was valuable to Shinra because I was unique, but what if there where a hundred, a thousand such as me? Wars fought only by Midians for the sake of humans. Your regeneration surpasses mine, and I'm sure you have all other sorts of abilities that you haven't shown any of us yet.

You almost saw your future once, captured by Shinra, I'm sure they would have found someway to unlock your secrets with enough time and depravity. Then "werewolf" becomes a rank rather than a race, your pride and lineage reduced to a distinction within the military. There are those 'righteous' enough to believe that they must destroy us for the sake of humanity. There are those evil enough to want our secrets at any cost. We dance our glorious dance on the edge of the knife, only finding acceptance with those few who lie between the polar opposites. If we insist on fighting each other because of what we are, our last chance goes down the drain. Dr. Hojo made me to answer to him, and gave me the memories that Jenova gave him. I told them to James because he didn't have them. He summed up the war between Jenova and the Cetra in one word: 'stupid.' Neither of us is going to be free until humanity can't pose a threat to us. We can dance forever for love of the dance, or we can dance forever for the twisted amusement of humans. They say wolves want freedom more then anything else, do you want freedom if the only way we can get it is by working together?

Alex looked Niro up and down one more time, as if seeing him with new eyes, or being able to see his true form. "To Midians, that we may dance that dance in freedom." Alex had no cup to raise in a toast, but he raised his hand, and Niro took it. "To Garou, may your song make humans tremble once more."

Alex's eyes widened just as much as Niro's smile did. "I told you, I know your history, which is really our history. Alex released Niro's right hand, and grasped his left hand, and part shook it part ripped the makeshift bandages (made from Niro's trenchcoat) around it to shreds. Niro's blood came in slow trickles but it fell to the floor all the same. Alex seemed pleased with it. "There, Fenris would hardly accept without an open wound on your body to mark your dedication."

**OWAN: Another twilight come and passed. I'm not sure what scenes we're missing, but we've been putting together an outtakes reel for the end. This chapter gives you more insight into the way Alex thinks, and also serves as a little chance for Niro to show off. Niro got a little preachy here, but everyone has at least one chapter like that. Enjoy…**


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14 The eye of the tiger.

Disclaimer: There's a crapload of stuff in this one that isn't ours. Anyone who can recognize the reference in the basement gets a moogle.

James could understand what Alex liked about Cosmo Canyon: it was a nice place, nice people, air smelled good. It was almost a shame that they couldn't stay longer, oh well, no rest for the wicked.

Granted, James could hardly understand that phrase, it was one of the harder ones to understand. Unlike say "A fool and his money are soon parted" or "Look before you leap." Since they weren't getting any rest did that mean that they were wicked? It was all more complicated then James cared to truly think about.

They drove from the canyon onward to the next town; Sephiroth hadn't mentioned its name for some reason. As they entered through the town's gates, Sephiroth flinched, and James instantly turned to see if something had hurt him. Well nothing physical, so it must have been that other kind, mental, the kind James wasn't that familiar with, or understood, for that matter.

Sephiroth looked up at the gates and he shuddered in just the same manor he had flinched, as if he was trying to stop himself from doing so, but unable to. "I was born here." Mirri's eyebrows went up in surprise. Mirri surprised and Sephiroth flinching, this was turning into a very unusual day. "I thought you were born in Midgar."

Sephiroth silenced her with a quick glare. "No I was born here. Not that it matters Mirri, you're right in essence. Both of my parents were from Midgar, and they were just here for their work. My mother, got pregnant here, and they decided it wasn't worth moving her to Midgar to give birth. I was taken to Midgar less then a month after I was born. I didn't even know I came from this place until a couple of years ago. It's nothing Mirri, this place isn't anything to me. It's even less than that now."

Aeris raised her eyebrows in question. "What do you mean now? What happened to it?" Sephiroth growled under his breath, and his face became a mask of rage. "I climbed back to the life from the depths of the grave, and this town was the first place I saw. Before I 'died' I saw this place burned down, everything except the Shinra mansion. Do you know what I found once I returned to the world of the living?

This place had been rebuilt by Shinra, every brick and stone the same. Shinra has actors here pretending to be the people who had lived here. Do you know what Shinra did? They glossed over my entire past like I hadn't ever existed. I don't even have a birth certificate."

That last line drew out another sigh of regret from Aeris, but Sephiroth waved it off. "Don't worry about me. Being back here, in Nibelhiem, just reminds me how much reason I have to hate Shinra." It was another dark comment, and even James could understand that it was not the kind of thing you laughed about, but for some reason Alex didn't.

That barking laugh of his broke through the air and instantly all eyes went to him. /Nibelhiem? More corruption of the northern language. Niffelhiem, it means the land of the dead. The land where the dead rot for all time, frozen and unmoving. A domain for those who have proven themselves unworthy to even reach the Fields of Slaughter. It sounds most appropriate for the description that you have given. A town filled with people who should be dead. Humans have such a wonderfully warped sense of humor.\

Mirri glared down at Alex. "I somehow doubt anyone had that particular aspect in mind when they named the town, particularly as it wasn't filled with dead people yet. But that isn't what matters right now. What matters is what we're going to be doing."

Sephiroth looked through the gates towards the town. "James, Aeris, come with me, we're going to examine the mansion. It'll be dark in about an hour. Mirri, Alex, and Niro you just keep your eyes open and patrol the town. Get us reservations at the inn, five beds, any way you want to count them, I'm not going to sleep in that place again. A few too many painful memories if you understand." The group nodded, and then Sephiroth made a one handed gesture and James followed him into the mansion.

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"You know, haunted mansion I expect monsters, ghosts, spookables, the dreadful grab-me-gotcha and maybe a side order of hefalumps. However what do we end up dealing with? A pile of old books. I thought we where heroes, not librarians!"

It only took one good glare from Sephiroth to get James to rethink his statement and go back to working his way through various books. "Okay, okay, back to work, I'm just saying this is a little bit of a blow to a guys dignity." There was an awkward pause as Sephiroth quickly scanned through the last pages of the book he had been looking at, worthless just like the last one.

He tossed it on a huge pile that was quickly being created between him and James in their search. A very large part of Sephiroth yearned to say "James, since when do you have any dignity to start with?" but he just reached for another book instead. Aeris was standing guard outside in case any actual monsters did come along, not a likely possibility all things considered. Sephiroth quickly began to scan the pages filled with writing in an untidy scrip looking for any mention of the Black Materia.

If putting up with James' chatter was annoying, it was better than the alternative. Sephiroth hadn't seen any mention of the Black Materia in the books he had gone through, but his own name came up plenty of times. Some deeply ingrained self preservation instinct told him that the less Aeris knew on that subject the better. James would gloss right over Sephiroth's name looking for "Black Materia" and not ask questions, or at least relevant ones. "THUMP"

The final deciding advantage of using James to help him look of course was James himself. He had been designed as an all in one Shinra commando unit, and thus could do just about anything. If his mind was out in left field most of the time he was at least able to come close to Sephiroth's speed with which he scanned through books looking for the choice phrase.

They had been at it for almost an hour with regular comments by James every five minutes. Still they had made quite a big pile of books that they had gone through, there where not many left on the shelves at all. "BOOYAHHH!"

Sephiroth turned around and found James performing his traditional victory dance, which in keeping with tradition involved him tripping over something accidentally. In this case it was the book he had read before the one he now gripped in his hand. James tripped over it, and ended up taking a headlong dive into the pile of books he and Sephiroth had created.

James completely vanished into that pile for a few moments, and Sephiroth uttered a small prayer to anyone who was listing. Almost as soon as he did that, James' head (minus the hat he had been wearing before he went in) broke through the pile of books, smiling broadly.

Gripped his left hand was a book with a common brown binding that he had managed to hold onto. His right hand broke through the pile of books and he turned pages in the book he held for a moment. Then he tossed the book to Sephiroth after dog-earing the page in question, happiness overflowing his body and out every pore. "If found it, now we can check out of this place!"

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On his way out, Sephiroth's eyes where drawn to James, and Aeris looked onward in surprise as well. James was pulling his damndest against a wooden door that just wouldn't budge. Sephiroth was slightly surprised that the doors hinges hadn't come off by now as James let out a squeal of anger at the stubborn door. Sephiroth was instantly reminded of the image of a cat trying to get out and hopelessly pawing at a door.

Sephiroth let out a low sigh under his breath, James would be complaining about it for as long as he could remember it (which would be from one to two weeks) unless he did something. "James stand aside." James did his eyes growing wider by the moment with pleasure as he saw what Sephiroth was planning. One old door stood little chance against a bored, tired, and irritated Sephiroth, and the door, frame and all, was soon lying some 15 away.

James instantly scampered through and let out a disappointed moan. Nothing of any particular interest was on the other side of the door. Just dust, and a few boxes, no make that coffins, they were filled with skeletons, probably Hojo's specimens at one point. One coffin however still had a lid on top of it, and James gravitated to it instantly.

This time he didn't require Sephiroth's help to complete his own foolish errands. He shifted the coffin lid, pushed it to the side and gazed down in expectance and then disappointment. Against his better judgment, Sephiroth walked closer to see what held James' attention, as did Aeris. It was just another dead body, it was in a slightly better state of repair though: it still had skin and clothing on it.

However, the body was just as clearly dead all the same, it's eyes where closed, but Sephiroth knew nothing dwelled behind them, the face was gaunt and stretched. The hair had gone grayish white with age, this man might have died of natural causes, but how he got here was anyone's guess. As soon as Sephiroth turned away James voice let out a squeal of delight.

Sephiroth turned back around and found James gripping a small white card that he squinted at one eye almost closed. He apparently read it silently, and then held it up for Sephiroth to read. The light was poor even for Sephiroth's eyes and so he snatched the card from James' hand to get a better look. James let the card go unresistingly and Sephiroth held it up to the single low watt bulb in the room. "It says 'The Bird of Hermes is my name, eating my wings to make me tame.'"

As soon as he finished reading the card out loud for Aeris, Sephiroth dropped the card, letting out a startled hiss. Aeris' eyebrows went up instantly. "Did you get a paper cut?" James of course was less caring but more direct. "Don't be silly Aeris, how do you get a paper cut while your wearing gloves?" Sephiroth looked down at the razor thin slice through his black glove and then through the skin of his index finger, how indeed? A drop of red liquid fell from the cut and Sephiroth's surprise became even greater.

Sephiroth had gotten paper cuts before, but they were rare for him, and he could never remember having one that bled. The drop of blood fell downwards, Sephiroth's eyes following it all the way. It splattered over the dead man's face, just below his nose, and it slid into his mouth. James was by this point downright euphoric.

Aeris' mind, being more prone to thoughts of self preservation, led her to take a few steps back. Slowly, very slowly a pair of eyes, blood red eyes, opened and looked directly into Sephiroth's green ones, and then blinked. Sephiroth was tempted to take a few steps back himself right then. /Do not worry master... I will return to your side once I have dined.\

It was not much like Alex's voice at all. For one thing Sephiroth somehow knew that neither James nor Aeris had herd the voice, only him. Secondly the voice had been a strained whisper, a moment after he heard it, the body dissolved into base shadow. James who had watched the entire process but not heard the voice snapped his fingers in anger. "Geez, what a gip! I was expecting it to burst into the flames or something." The words "or something" echoed in Sephiroth's head all the way out of the mansion.

---- --------------------

He was weak, he was frail, he was an old man, but those things were temporary setbacks. He may be old, but there was still some strength possessed in Vincent Valentine's limbs. Some strength that could multiply and expand on itself, all it needed was life.

It was night outside the mansion, blessed night; the day would have been able to hold him back, as weak as he was. But the cool night felt wonderful against his pale skin. It didn't take long for him to find what he was seeking, a man draped in heavy black robes. A wretched creature clinging to life, his sacrifice for the greater good would be commendable.

He did not scream or fight back as Vincent dragged him into the shadows of night and away from prying eyes. Vincent pulled back the hem of the cloak, even this weak he could hear the sound of the blood pumping in the man's neck, hear his prey. Red saliva (not much of it though) played on his lips when he opened them revealing row after row of sharp teeth.

He tore into the man's neck like a rabid dog, and spat out the flesh instantly. It was of no concern to him. He drank deeply from the blood that sputtered from the man's throat however, he drank down the crimson life. Part of his mind (a very small part) told him to stop, but he had no plans to obey it. A much stronger part of his mind whispered a mantra over and over again. "Need life to be strong, must be strong to protect master, must have life!"

He drank until the man's body was as dry as a bone, and then finally pushed the man to the ground. He reached into a pocket of his formerly black business suit that was now blood red. He pulled from it a small pistol and fired a shot point blank into the dead man's head. The man turned into a pile of dust with a gleaming bullet emerging from it. Vincent very slowly looked down at the pile of dust and chuckled.

He held up his pistol, and once more he saw a reflection he could recognize in the pistol. Once more he saw a face as yet untouched by the true rigors of time. He no longer saw gray white hair but midnight black, the color of shadow. The only noticeable change was in his eyes, they where now blood red instead of dark brown, so what?

Vincent Valentine lowered his pistol and looked down again at the pile of dust and the bullet. He could not stop a dry chuckle from rising in his throat. "To think, some people believe there is no such thing as a perfect crime!"

--------------------------

Niro and Alex had been keeping tabs on each other, with Mirri running interference. Niro was just fine with that. Personally he agreed with Sephiroth, this entire town was less real then the way he looked at the moment.

The mansion in fact looked like something out of a Bram Stoker novel. Of course telling that to Alex would be a mistake, Alex would most likely not be finished with the mansion till it was a pile of cinders. Not that committing such an action would have been such a bad thing, Alex generally did know the right way to handle things, flames or teeth. Granted he needed a little help on his way being a pyro, but Niro would gladly supply that.

Sephiroth and the others were coming back, James was smiling (as always) but happiness was present in him from the soles of his feet to the tips of his ears. "Guys, you won't believe this! We found this guy in the basement, and this weird card that gave Sephiroth a papercut even though he was wearing gloves! Then the paper cut bled onto the guy's mouth when we thought he was dead, but then he woke up! The only problem is that after he did that he vanished into thin air. What kind of an ending is that?"

"It isn't." A moment later the man who had spoken stepped into visibility. He had long black hair and red eyes, but they weren't close to the same shade of red as James'. James' were bright red, this guys were darker, the color of old blood. Nothing could have summed up what came next better then phrase "Deja vu", or at least for Niro.

Alex snarled, his fur bushed up , and then he instantly was at the black haired man's throat. Alex on top of a man with black hair, where had Niro ever seen something like this? However there was one big difference, Niro was forced to admit that whoever this guy was, he was good. Not only was he good, he could move like he had no bones in his body.

The man twisted on the ground under Alex's claws, and he tossed Alex off of him onto the ground. Then he was back on his feet with a pistol in his hands pointed at Alex. Alex meanwhile had landed on all fours and swung around still quite ready to fight. Niro was tempted to go for his own piece and turn into a panther or anything else to help the man in black, but he waited.

"Don't you dare come between me and my master!" /Don't even think about coming between me and my alpha! Be careful, he may be nothing but a pathetic bloodsucking leech, but this one has some strength. A gangrel I believe, from the looks of his left hand../ Eyes instantly focused on the man's left hand that had somehow escaped Niro's notice up to this point.

It was a golden metallic claw far too big to be a normal human appendage. James' eyes beamed with interest when he saw it but Sephiroth's showed something completely different, fear. "BOTH OF YOU STOP!" The man with the black hair and the werewolf both froze long enough for an old camera to have perfectly captured their images. Sephiroth glared at both of them.

"Artic Operations Specialist Alexander Diamondclaw stands down, and you... You were a lot older last time I saw you." The man with the golden claw and black hair looked at nothing as he answered. "I have dined and it has renewed my strength Master." As soon as the man finished speaking Alex instantly sent his thoughts to the entire group. /Dined? Leech, the undeserved blood of others has given you back your cursed life! Well shall soon see how you like to feel teeth tearing at your neck!\

Mirri muttered something under her breath about "testosterone". Sephiroth looked like he was only a few twitches away from going pyrokinetic on both the "Vampire" and the werewolf. "Who the hell are you and what do you have to do with me?" The vampire broke into a gracious bow like a nobleman, though somehow managing to let his posture show he was still very much aware of Alexander.

"I failed her, I failed her and I was cursed. Cursed with this life so that I would eternally have to serve those of her bloodline. My name is Vincent Valentine, I once was a Turk, I once was a man, but now I am a monster who's soul purpose is to serve humans." The man rose from his bow, and Niro noticed for the first time how tall he was. To be more exact, he saw that Vincent was, while not quite Sephiroth's height, he was damn near it, no more than a couple of inches shorter.

Sephiroth locked eyes with Vincent for only a second, and then looked away to glare at Alex. "I said stand down. I trust him. " /You trust a blood sucker?\ Sephiroth crouched so that he could look Alex right in the eyes. "We have two choices in this world Alexander. We can be the sum of our strengths, or the sum of our weaknesses. If you do not trust my judgment then you are free to leave."

Alex broke that eye contact and not at all in the way of which Sephiroth had broken eye contact with Vincent. This was a quick snapping motion of one who was forced to blink and Alex lowered his head to the ground. /Vampires, Shapeshifters, our Alpha is so great that such things bow before him. Who am I to challenge the will of Gaia?\

**OWAN: **James wants to know if any of you have been reading his blog/LJ archives, I want to thank you guys for your past support and ask where the hell you were for chapter 13. I don't doubt you have more important things to do than stroke our egos, but we still like to hear from our readers. I'll be posting a link to a really ugly cast photo I drew about a month and a half ago(trust me, I've gotten better since then) with the next chapter, but only if I hear from some of you.

'Till the next perfect twilight, dear readers… 


	15. Chapter 15

Twighlight Perfection

FN: Alex being a human and a Sephiroth worshipper is at times as stable of mind and ego as the original (or the lesser known "You are what you believe in" mostly seen among Fenris worshipers) thus if you pity him, please leave reviews, otherwise you might as well be hitting his fragile ego with a sledgehammer. Bare in mind I don't dislike reviews either but I'm a cat, I don't have to think I rule the universe because I already know it, for me a good reviews is like a good scratch behind the ears, nice but not essential to life. So as the recent dirth of reviews has made Alex go twitchy around the eyes, and say things like "must attend reunion" please help alleviate his mental strife, before he has to start sticking pointy things into people named Strife. Ohh and if you check Alex's bio we have a short story up in the Hellsing anime section called "I think that we're lost again" R&R it or Alex will have to burn Nibelhime to the ground again.

**OWAN: He's right. Oh, and I'll no longer be editing the FN's for spelling, it seems legible enough. Besides, I was thinking more Junon than Nibelheim; you can only burn one town so many times before it stops being pretty.**

Chapter 15: It's been a bad day, please don't take a picture, it's been a bad day.

Curiosity killed the cat, but then the cat also had nine lives. James planed to break even and start curbing his curiosity when he had four lives left, as he still had nine, why not try and figure everything out? You would fail anyways, but if you tried you might find some stuff out that personally interested you.

"What's it like to be a vampire?" James and Vincent were now both on top of the inn's roof at this point. Vincent had currently been busy looking up at the sky, so James decided he might as well indulge in his favorite hobby, mythology. Alex was slightly interested telling him some things, but not really in the particulars. Vincent was calling Sephiroth "Master" which meant that Vincent would probably do anything Sephiroth asked him to. With that fact in mind, asking Sephiroth to ask Vincent to tell him about vampirism was his backup plan.

Vincent looked over at James, and one pair of dark red eyes met James' bright red ones. "Give me your arm." Shake hands? Okay, whatever, James calmly thrust his left hand forward, for Vincent to take it. As soon as James did this he reconsidered his actions.

The right hand would shake the right hand, and the left hand would shake the left hand. If James was offering Vincent his left hand, he was asking Vincent to shake it with his left hand. A shake from Vincent's left "hand" would probably prove very painful for James. So instead he drew it back and offered Vincent his right hand.

Vincent had no apparent intentions to shake James' hand. Instead he stood up, walked over, and rolled up the sleeve of James' jacket. He took one look at James right arm, and let out an irritated sneer. To be fair James was slightly insulted, you didn't often get people looking at how good your arm was before they shook your hand. "Umm... what are you doing?"

Vincent was now running a gloved thumb up and down James arm, which not just slightly unsettling mentally, it just plain felt weird. Vincent took his eyes off James' arm for a moment to look at him. "Simple, I'm looking for a blood vessel. But whatever the f you are, I can't find one."

Once James understood what the cause of the unpleasant situation was, he suddenly realized how interesting it was. "Are you sure you're not just inexperienced? I mean, didn't you only come out of your coffin today, maybe you need to look closer?" Vincent barred his fangs at James in a very impressive snarl. He also began to press harder against James' arm moving from unpleasant to slightly painful.

His voice sort of reminded James of Alex's, he could make evisceration (whatever that was) a science. "This is not a matter of experience, it's a matter of instinct. People have blue veins in their arms that carry blood, by placing pressure on the limb the vein becomes more evident. With you all I'm getting is skin. What are you?" This might do something to explain James' interest in mythology: mythology was interested in him. "Umm, what would you say if I told you that I don't have any idea?"

Vincent removed his hand from James' arm and looked him up and down once more. "Okay, fine then, whatever you are, you don't have an arm vein. Let's see if I can find something in your neck, okay?" James turned around, removed his hat, forget fear, all James felt was interest.

Vincent took a moment to run a hand up and down James' ears, and uttered a quick "What the hell..." before he got back to the job. After a few moments of having the thumb of Vincent's right hand go up and down his it finally stopped. "Good, you've got a neck vein. If I couldn't find one of those then I'd be afraid you were already as dead as I am. You may feel a slight stinging sensation." It was more like a slight prickling sensation as Vincent drove his teeth into James' neck.

Once Vincent was done with that, he spun James back around, and James was privilege to an amazingly interesting experience. He got to watch someone age 10 years in about a minute, in reverse. First Vincent's hair shortened slightly, it became less tangled. His face seem to soften slightly, eyes grew slightly brighter. He became a few inches shorter, but his body structure still remained as lanky as before hand.

Once the entire process was complete Vincent took a moment to wipe the excess blood off his mouth, before he licked it off his sleeve. "You wanna know what it's like to be a vampire, sit down." Vincent sat down motioning for James to do the same, which he did. "Do you have any idea why I asked to drink your blood before I answered your question?"

James shook his head wordlessly, the possibility of whatever he was about to learn holding him in thrall. "Simple reason, the more blood a vampire drinks, the younger they get. You taste very good, not as good as my Master, but you are, without a doubt, a virgin." James accepted the compliment regardless of how little he understood it.

"My answer regarding my condition changes depending on how old I'm feeling. When I'm fully feeling my age I'd say that vampirism is a curse that dooms one to a horrible undeath, from which there is no escape. If you wanted to know when I was the age that I was before I died, I'd say that vampirism is just the afterlife, with a chance to make up for past mistakes."

James had some idea of what Vincent's next words were going to be. "What would you say if I asked you like you are now?" Vincent smiled at James and gave him a thumbs up. "Vampirism fing rocks. Beats the shit out of being alive, let alone being dead." "What makes the difference?"

Vincent reached into his pocket, pulled out a pair of red sunglasses and slipped them on over his eyes before he smiled at James. "The secret of happiness to life is something that I'm sure you've already figured out. It's all about spending so much time thinking about the good things in this world that you don't have time for the bad ones."

Wow, James had already figured out the secret to universal happiness. Granted, there were plenty of other mysteries left for him to solve. "When I'm like this do you know what I think about? All the things I thought about when I was this old as a human. Killing people, and fing women. Only different is that I'm just thinking about her instead of various women. That, and instead thinking about killing various people, I'm thinking about killing the man who killed her."

"So how much about vampirism is myth and how much of it is fact?" As James asked that question, the sun suddenly decided to peak its head up.. Vincent reached into a pocket of his Turk uniform and handed James a small roll of gauze. "You'll want to tie this around your neck, it's still bleeding. Vampire bite marks don't heal over very quickly. Most of the times vampires either kill their prey or lick the wound shut. Sadly I really don't want to run my tongue up and down your neck. I hope you don't mind, but a vampires tongue is its primary sexual organ, and I'd rather keep mine away from your neck."

James took the gauze and tied it around his neck. Once he had secured it correctly, he turned back to Vincent. "So don't you have to be going back to a coffin or something?"

Vincent leaned back on the rooftop, and shook his head as he lay back. "I'm a hybrid, a freak, a mutation, a real monster's monster. When I have this much blood in me, the worst sunlight can do is make me sweat the blood out slowly." "So who were you?" That was the straw that broke the camel's back. Forget just breaking a camel's back, that straw caused a solid stone bridge to suddenly collapse under James' feet when he was halfway across.

Vincent whipped around with blinding speed and looked James right in the eyes taking off his sunglasses with one smooth motion before he grabbed James around the neck with his right hand. "That is between me and my Master. You have absolutely nothing to do with who I was, understand?" James would have said he did, but sadly Vincent was completely cutting of his air circulation.

Eventually Vincent let go, and James coughed to clear his throat before he spoke "Clear as crystal." Vincent slipped his sunglasses back on, and smiled again. "Okay then, let's watch the sunrise, I haven't seen it happen for 30 years." James nodded, and coughed again, attempting to clear his throat again and again, and then he finally got it. "Okay then, Vincent."

Vincent looked away from James to turn his attention to where the sun would rise. "It's insane for a vampire to love the sun, it should burn us to ash, but I just end up getting singed. Here is to the pain that everyone tells us we should be in, but we never feel." James could echo that.

-------

"I can't believe I'm doing this." "Oh, come on Sephiroth, you have to remember to smile." "The last time I had my picture taken intentionally, I was standing right here, and now the man who took the picture, and everyone else in the picture besides me, is now dead, or worse. That sets a lovely precedent, doesn't it?"

Aeris didn't ask him what "worse" meant and Sephiroth was glad not to tell her. Ironically, five years later, once again Sephiroth was getting his picture taken before the mansion that he had been born in, and ironically this time it was with even lower technology. With more reliable low technology though, it was an old black and white camera, which would probably need a full second to take a picture, but it was the only camera in town that instantly took a picture rather than needing time to be developed.

The man taking the photograph was still slightly floundering in the gap between his beliefs in reality, and thus unable to take the picture. This was caused principally by two facts, the first one was that James had taken his hat off, the second was that Alex staunchly refused to have his picture taken as a human. Mirri of course found the whole process hilarious.

"Listen to you General, you sound like one of those indigenous Wutian tribesman who claims that having their picture taken sucks out your soul." Sephiroth looked at her and smirked back. "No Mirri, it has a tendency to take the souls of everyone else. Sure you're willing to risk it?" Mirri looked around and scratched her chin. "I think I'm going to need a leash before this photo is taken.

"For the dog?" The photographer had finally managed to recalibrate his mind within normal parameters, by adjusting his view of reality, the same way he had refrained from asking Sephiroth his name. "No, for James, holding still isn't in his vocabulary. "Right then..."

The photographer once again was in possession of that looked of glazed over deer in the headlights, lack of contact with reality, that military men came to so readily identify with "the civvies". Mirri dashed off and came back a moment later, red leash in hand. In the mean time the photographer distinctly heard someone say /Pathetic half blind human, can't tell the difference between a dog and a wolf!\ But he had been looking right at the group, and the "sound" was coming from right in front of them and none of them had moved their lips. So he ignored it, the more of this he ignored the better.

Mirri attached the leash with a "so stand still James" and then she turned to face the camera. The cameraman lined up the shot and Niro tilted up his glasses for effect, this time revealing milky white eyes. The photographer kept his eyes directly on the ground, the picture was well set up, it would develop itself just fine, no reason for him to see what was in. There was a flash of light and the photographer distinctly herd "F!"

A moment later, he looked up, he had heard that the camera could add 10 pounds, but he had never heard of it adding five years to a man's face, particularly five years that showed up not only in the picture but on the man's face in real life. But he didn't care, he took the picture, handed it over to the man who might look incredibly like, but was not, General Sephiroth, took the camera its stand and set the planet's record for the 100 meter dash.

-----

Sephiroth showed the picture to the group. It was incredibly stupid to chose now of all times to stop for a picture, might as well ask Tseng if he would very much mind what a nice photo-op the an exploding reactor was, before they started trying to kill each other. "The first rule of being a Turk applies very well right now, don't leave any evidence behind." Sephiroth was tempted to burn the picture but just put it in a pocket of his trench coat, no one would find it there. "So, none of us talk about this until much, much, later."

Mirri nodded though as Aeris looked at her a smile came to her lips as if treasuring a private joke that was too funny to keep private for long. "In black and white Mirri your hair makes you look like the Bride of Frankenstein." Mirri looked at Aeris, and then at James who was now rolling on the ground attempting to remove the leash which might have been simpler if he wasn't trying to do it the way Alex had taught him.

"Well look on the bright side Aeris, at least James doesn't have stitch marks all over him, we do our monsters right these days. No more stitching dead bodies together now we just make some DNA, put in an cocktail mixer, shake until ready and serve, results, one ready made patchwork being." Vincent had more important ideas on his mind, like how much his face stung due to the blinding flash of light.

"Master, do you wish me to deal with that photographer, the negative of the photo may need to be disposed of along with any, eyewitnesses." Sephiroth waved off the comment not out of mercy but practicality. "No, if I can read people half as well as I think I can, that man is currently torching the negative himself. We're bad news and everyone but Shinra is smart enough not to get in our way. Now, let's move, we've got miles to go before we sleep."

------

The Nibelhiem Mountains were an obstacle that seemed impossible to bypass. They rose up almost as tall as the skies with crisscrossing patterns inside like a labyrinth. But that was what Aeris felt, Sephiroth took one look at them and sneered at them like all his other foes. "We'll go over them."

He had said it, and so would it be. You didn't refuse a direct order from General Sephiroth, when he said run, you could run across water. Or at least SOLDIERS could, "humans" like Aeris just realized that they seem to be wearing an invisible ball and chain, while everyone else was growing wings.

That was the most obvious with Niro, he literally _had_ grown wings. He was now in the shape of some kind of bird of prey and easily making his way up the mountain. It was just barely possible for Aeris to see Niro when he was in flight. Other times he would be sitting on some small perch catching his breath.

Vincent was the next worst, or best depending on how you looked at it. He was going up the mountain with truly inhuman speed. He was able to hang onto the mountain by what could only be called force of will. He didn't even need to be able to grip the mountain with his claw, he just had to shoot up the mountain, sticking to the rocks like a lizard.

Alex was busy making his way up the mountain, one huge jump at a time. Mirri was working her way up the mountain by the most direct rout possible. This route also happened to be severely lacking of hand holds, so Mirri was making her own.

She shot blades into the mountain every now and again to use as hand holds. James was now not far behind her, and he was using the same blades that Mirri had used. Which left Aeris and Sephiroth to work out how to get up the cliff. Sephiroth, Aeris knew, certainty must have had years of experience to rely on, which just left her.

"You'll be needing my help to get up this thing." Well at least Sephiroth got to the point quick and fast. "Yes, so how do you suggest we do this?" Sephiroth took a moment to look away from Aeris and towards one of the twisting caves. "Five years ago I had a guide show me the way through those caves to what's above." "If you know the way then why are you having them climb it?" "Because they can."

----

"Hey Mirri, where's Sephiroth?" James was busy taking the last step to transfer his body from the cliff face, to the plateau where the group was resting. As he did so he instantly made one quick realization, he was the last man up. This was followed by the realization that Sephiroth had been behind him when he started, but he had been sure that Sephiroth would have been able to pass him on the way up. Sephiroth hadn't been behind him, and now he wasn't in front of him. Neither was Aeris.

"Did any of you guys see where they got to?" Alex was lying on his side, scratching at his flanks with a claw. At James words however he cocked an ear forward in interest. /The Silverfang and Child of Gaia?\ Vincent suddenly began to look this way and that, unsettled in a way that being out in the sun had failed to achieve.

"Where is he?" He glared at each and every one of them as if any of them might be hiding Sephiroth behind them, (which was very odd considering that James could have hid behind Sephiroth) or if he might be under a rock. Amazingly, when his gaze was leveled at Mirri however she spoke to alleviate his fears. "Sephiroth is taking Aeris the long way through the mountain."

Vincent took one look at Mirri, snarled in anger directed at nothing and everything, and dissipated into shadow. This was a particularly amazing feat considering that they were in bright sunlight. Vincent closed his eyes and his entire body melted into the ground. Then there was a puddle of shadows cast by nothing visible that raced along the ground.

It quickly vanished from view and James felt like cocking his own ear at what he had just seen, except he wasn't quite sure how to do it. Niro and Mirri were as surprised as James, but Alex on the other hand seemed to practically have been expecting the event. /The dead travel fast don't they?

There is a great deal of knowledge about vampires among Garou. Chiefly how when a vampire is created it will drink the blood of the vampire who made it, and this blood will enslave the vampire to its sire. The vampire is a slave to its blood in many ways, slave to its undying lust for the blood of others, slave to the immortal undying nature of it's blood, and slave to the one who gave it blood to make it live.

I have never heard of a vampire enslaved by human blood, but that is what we see before us now./ Understanding showed in Niro's posture, and he spat in the ground before he spoke. "Bio weapon, fing bio weapon. He used to work for Shinra, they started with making humans into SOLDIERS, then moved onto making monster out of humans, before they started making monsters from scratch."

Niro's words did everything James needed to catch on. It was a clear series of events, causes outlined, leaving James to ask the questions he asked best. "So you mean Vincent is related to us Niro?" Niro took a moment to point to his black hair and to the holstered pistol he wore before answering.

"Vampires have been accused of turning into bats, wolves, and other things. I would also like to point out that Alex didn't take very kindly to either of us. I wouldn't say that were related by 'blood' but, as he's clearly been down there for a few years, he must have been one of Dr. Hojo's experiments. I'd say we're, meaning him and me, are probably something like second cousins once removed by marriage in the 'Family Tree' of the doctor's experiments."

Mirri and Alex took a moment to look at each other before Mirri spoke. "How the hell do you two do that?" James turned to look at Mirri and one eyebrow (and one ear) rose questioningly. "Do what?" Alex rolled over where he lay, continuing to attend to scratching his parts of his body in what James could only assume was a routine check for fleas.

/The Wyrm is not a single entity Black Fury, it is like a hive of bees, all answering to one queen. The Wyrm creates various servants to do her bidding. Horrible monsters to mindlessly rend flesh and kill. Those who seem to have great brilliance and beauty to entrap the weak of mind.

She also creates hunters, who come in all shapes and sizes but all share one single rule. All hunters have their ways, those small that get close to drive knives into backs, those big to inspire fear in their victims, but they are all brilliant. Of course like all things that come from the Wyrm, it's a twisted sort of brilliance, like an mosquito who gorges on blood 'till he kills himself.

The hunters are designed to work individually, but they are also capable of working together to take down larger targets, a twisted mockery of a wolf pack. Evil may be separated from evil, but nature can not be separated from nature. When two hunters are placed together, they, as you humans say, 'click'.

The Ragabash and the Shapeshifter as you can see are 'clicking'. It is a thing of nature, but not created by nature, one should not try to understand it, simply accept it. These two, can hear things in each other's words that we do not.\

Mirri looked accusingly at James for a moment, who felt his ears drooping, because whatever it was that happened, James had done it, and he didn't know how he had. "James, I need to ask you a question." Mirri's accusation quickly turned to interest and James felt hope kindle a fire in him again. "How many fingers am I holding up behind my back?"

It was a simple question, so James gave a simple answer. "None, your thumb is sticking out." Mirri smiled at his answer and revealed from behind her back her left hand with the thumb held up.

"Alex, here's a quick lesson for you. Nurture will always win out over nature." Alex barked something that James didn't care to repeat in front of Mirri, particularly when she was the subject.

------

The monster sprang from the shadows, literally. Where once a pool of bright light had been, shadow suddenly oozed down from the ceiling, Sephiroth had never seen a monster like that before.

Training took over his body though, he pushed Aeris backwards with one hand, and drew Masamune with the other. He held it in both hands and drove the blade into the mass of shadows up to its hilt. When training finally relaxed into his normal senses he realized what had just happened. Across the hilt from Masamune stood Vincent Valentine, his face once again that of a gaunt but not yet old man in his 30's.

Masamune was solidly driven through the right side of his chest, where his right lung should have been. Vincent looked down at the blade in surprise, several feet of it coming out the back of his body. Sephiroth looked down at in surprise, it was a fatal blow, blood should have been pouring out of Vincent's mouth.

Blood, oh. Sephiroth pulled Masamune out of Vincent's body and sheathed it. "What are you doing here?" Vincent looked down at the hole in his chest for a moment, and slowly the wound closed over. Apparently whatever magic Vincent's undead state imparted on him, it was greater then the magic on Masamune which normally prevented its wounds from being healed by normal things like cure materia. "Looking for you."

Aeris was slowly standing back up, and as Sephiroth and Vincent eyed each other wearily, she said what Sephiroth was thinking but unable to say. "Why?" Vincent, whose clothes seemed to shift with his age took a moment to wrap a red cloak he now wore around his body. "I have but one object, one service, one goal, one reason for 'living', to serve my master. A task that I can not accomplish if he is dead."

There was a very long pause as the two men looked at each other. Vincent, with the undying devotion, and the experience to know how he had failed once before, and would not do so again. Sephiroth starred back armed with his knowledge that he would refuse to be locked in to a life determined by others yet again. As the two glared at each other, both of them refusing to even blink, when Aeris suddenly came from behind Sephiroth, like a rapier thrust in the back.

"Umm, would you two take a step away from each other?" Sephiroth took one step backwards just like Aeris asked, before he turned on her. "Aeris, if you haven't noticed, I don't need any one to look after me." Vincent shot one look at Aeris, and one at Sephiroth that he could read all too well. It was the same look he shot Aeris whenever he was trying to tell her that she was overstepping her abilities.

Sephiroth spun back to Vincent and raised a finger threateningly. "Who the hell are you to tell me that I need your protection?" Vincent glared at the Masamune on Sephiroth's back. "Do you know how strong I thought our love was? Nothing in this world is as eternal, least of all those who think they are."

Sephiroth felt his right hand start to twitch involuntarily as if urging him to draw Masamune. "My name is General Sephiroth, none who try to bar my way will survive." Sephiroth couldn't help but note that Vincent's own right hand was now starting to twitch, as if longed to go for his holstered gun. As if that would help him, a 9MM silenced pistol against Masamune?

Granted whatever Vincent lacked in weaponry, he apparently planned to make up for in pure balls. "My name is Vincent Valentine. Where Dracula died pinned with a stake through his heart, I was born. I will not fail her, I will protect you from any threat, even yourself!"

Sephiroth had never fought a vampire before, but it he doubted it would make a true difference. All he had to do was to slice Vincent's head off, if that didn't work he could use magic. If only Aeris would move so he could get this obstacle out of his way! "Will you two stop this now!" Vincent seemed equally impeded by Aeris' presence between him and Sephiroth

Despite being caught between two people with death in their eyes, Aeris wasn't afraid, she stared them both down. As it turned out, Aeris apparently had a good glare when it came to training wolves to sit like dogs. "Listen, I'm not going to stand still while you two kill each other. Vincent, Sephiroth is more capable then you give him credit for. I've seen him face horrific monsters, and Shinra personnel alike. Sephiroth, take a step away from your ego, we're all traveling together because we get things done this way that we couldn't do alone. Do you think you can take Jenova alone?"

Aeris raised her staff in an attempt to be menacing that might have succeeded if either man was capable of understanding fear. What she did accomplish, however, was breaking the tension. Vincent snorted softly, and Sephiroth gave a mock bow to Aeris with laughter in his eyes and mock respect in his voice. "Very well Aeris, how about you lead?" Sadly, Aeris took that offer.

-----

"Gentlemen, Garou, Shapeshifters, James...I guess there aren't any gentlemen here, this is our target." Surprisingly Mirri was able to get away with that statement without any ill effects. Alex probably would have been offended as being referred to as anything that would have made him sound human. Niro wasn't exactly a gentlemen, considering it was possible (Mirri didn't want to find out one way or another) that if he could change shape, sex wasn't any more fixed. James of course, was James, and more likely to pay attention to other things.

"Sephiroth wants us to take down that thing? Not saying we can't do it, but it doesn't look easy." The target Mirri had pointed at was at least 20 feet long and ten feet tall. It walked back and forth on four giant legs, all of them ending in wicked looking claws. Niro looked on at the thing, and rubbed his hands together, once he killed that thing he would steal its shape. It looked like a wonderful form for causing havoc.

Alex looked on and licked is lips in anticipation of a honorable foe to slay. /A Materia Keeper. These things should be extinct, shall we enlighten it to the will of Gaia for those who are weak?\ Mirri nodded, she might not be Sephiroth but she understood the importance of having people who liked to fight. "Glad to hear you're ready Alex, because you have to hit it first, and hit it hard."

It would not be fair to say Alex's desire to kill wavered at this point, only his self-preservation kicked in. /Why am I leading the charge Black Fury? Since the Silverfang evidently left you in charge, why don't you attack it first?\

Mirri paused and took a moment to flex her arms, you had to warm up before this kind of thing. "Because Alex, Sephiroth left me in charge because he trusts me to lead you into battle, but he trusts you to lead us _in_ battle. Surely you would agree that while I have more experience leading people, you on the other hand have countless more years of experience than I do when it comes to killing things."

A quick compliment thrown in with an explanation why you didn't have to do something. It was the same formula that women had been using since they first told men to carry heavy things because "they were stronger". Granted, Mirri used it very carefully, and only when it was for the good of everyone. It was a sliding slope from that kind of self indulgence to reclining on a golden throne while James stood over her with a fan.

That kind of thing would be fun in the short term, but it ultimately lead to spiritual corruption. The actual reason was that without Sephiroth the group had two main short range fighters, Alex and James. Alex was probably be best suited for hitting this thing hard, James was best for hit and run. Alex pawed at the ground, and Mirri continued explaining the situation.

"After Alex hits that thing, James you nail it fast and get out. Niro, you're going to need some kind of heavy power to take that thing. I'll use my blades and alternate between close and medium range. We keep hitting that thing and dodging its attacks till it dies. Good?" /A suitable plan Black Fury.\

Niro reached into his trenchcoat, and pulled out a pair of automatic shotguns, one in each hand.. "These things fire solid slugs. I'm ready to rock and roll." James, as always, was a coiled spring waiting for the slightest thing to set him of. "We'll take that thing down, if the Zolom couldn't stop us, this guy has no chance."

James tapped his scythe on the ground to emphasize his point, and Mirri nodded. She calmly touched Alex on the nape of the neck, her general place for touching James to spur him into action. "Okay Alex, your on." Alex put his paws to the ground and he was off with the other three not far behind.

The Materia Keeper turned to face him, and it's head darted down to try and snatch Alex up in its jaws. It failed, Alex darted to the side and then rose up on his hind legs. He managed to rake the claws on both of his front legs along one of the things back legs before he dashed past it.

James followed suit, dashing at the monster whose head once again snapped out at him. James wielded his scythe not as a weapon, but as a defensive tool to jam between the things hissing jaws.

As the things' huge gaping jaws came for him, James held up his scythe (blade out) between him and the Materia Keeper's mouth. The harder the monster tried to swallow James, the more it pressed itself down on the scythe cutting into it's mouth. This stalemate was broken by Mirri and Niro, who hit the Materia Keeper from opposite sides at the same time. Mirri launching claws, Niro firing all four barrels.

Both of them tore flesh on the sides of the Materia Keeper, who suddenly realized that it didn't want to swallow James all that much. Sadly, it had no gracious way to back down, as James adjusted his grip on the scythe so as to have it lodge even deeper into the things mouth. It was just as Alex was coming around for his second attack that the Materia Keeper suddenly struck.

Its entire body shimmered, and then an ever expanding wave of electricity shot out from the thing. James was hit first, as the electricity arced through his scythe into him. He went flying like a rag doll without his blade, skimming across the dirt till he came a stop against a wall of rock. Alex was hit next, with a startled yelp he was knocked to the ground his limbs splaying in every direction.

Mirri and Niro then sampled the things electric attack. Both of them were tossed against the walls of the canyon by the sheer power of the thing's blast. Try as hard as she could, everything seemed to be getting hazy, Mirri's vision was fogging over...

-----

The Materia Keeper let out a roar of triumph that was still slightly a hiss of rage because of the pain it was feeling from the metal claw lodged in it's mouth. Its "trine" spell had done its job, now it would just be a game of finishing off the wounded prey, the wolf that was not a wolf would be first, it was closest. The Materia Keeper slowly drew closer to its prey, its legs may have been wounded by they still worked.

"Hey you four legged cockroach! You've got something of mine, and I want it back!" Materia Keeper turned around in irritation, apparently one of its other prey would have to be dealt with first. It was the cat who was not a cat, standing on its hind legs, and glaring at the Materia Keeper. The cat who was not a cat had hurt the Materia Keeper, it's metallic claw was still stuck in the Materia Keeper's maw, but that meant the cat that was not a cat had no claws left.

The cat that was not a cat also had been badly wounded by the trine spell, it was limping, heavily favoring it's right leg as it advanced towards the Materia Keeper. It would simply be the matter of one quick claw swipe to dispose of this unnatural thing once and for all.

The Materia Keeper met its minuscule foe, it raised its claw, it struck downwards, and the claw buried itself in the ground. The cat that was not a cat had jumped away as the claw had come down, throwing itself under the Materia Keeper's body and rolled past it's back legs. The cat that was not a cat's voice came from behind the Materia Keeper now.

"I'm not back there any more, I'm behind you!" The Materia Keeper ripped it's claw free from the ground and turned around to face the annoyance. The cat that was not a cat was now standing on both legs, so its early show of weakness had been nothing but a ploy.

No matter, the cat that was not a cat stood no chance against the Materia Keeper. It hissed in anger still trying to free that metallic claw that had been lodged between its teeth, with no luck. So instead it took out it's pain on the being that had wedged that claw there.

It's claws flashed up and down, it swung them left and right, nothing worked. The cat that was not a cat was small and had the speed of an extremely small being compared to that of a much larger one. The cat that was not a cat was an unswattable fly, a unscratchable flea, if only it would stand still!

Finally the Materia Keeper succeeded against the smaller foolish cat who was not a cat. The thing slowed down just enough for the materia keeper's claw to slice the cat who was not a cat's leg, and blood spurted from the wound on it's left leg. There were no tricks now, the prey was wounded and the Materia keeper moved in for the kill. Suddenly the cat that was not a cat started to laugh, this was new.

The Materia Keeper knew that various animals reacted in different ways to the prospect of their own demises. Apparently the cat who was not a cat, instead of releasing some kind of pain numbing substances, was releasing something to make him completely happy before his own death. The Materia Keeper drew closer and the cat that was not a cat began to bang its front paws on the ground with laughter.

The Materia Keeper drew forward with more caution now, perhaps this was not natural, perhaps the cat that was not a cat possessed some kind of sickness that would make it unsafe to eat. He should see where its other prey lay. The Materia Keeper turned around, and it suddenly understood why the cat that was not a cat was laughing.

The wolf that was not a wolf was back on its legs, along with the human that was the Materia Keeper's usual prey, and the thing that was nothing. The Materia Keeper suddenly realized just how much of its strength it had expended chasing down the cat that was not a cat. That and how much blood it must have lost, that wound inflicted by one razor claw was suddenly starting to hurt much more vividly.

Its fate was sealed the moment the wolf that was not a wolf bit _through_ one of its legs. Then there were other impacts, and the materia keeper tried to flee, but only succeeded in limping a few steps before collapsing at the feet of the laughing cat that was not a cat. That horrific monster that had caused this!

-----

Niro had plenty of time to reload both nine gauge shotguns, three solid slug rounds each, enough to make a very serious impression. He smirked slightly as Alex's 'voice' echoed in their heads/Our prey is crippled, take it down!\

The Materia Keeper turned around to face them, and Niro could quite clearly see the whites of the thing's eyes, except they were bloodshot now. /Strike!\ "BLAM!" "BLAM!" Niro's shotguns let lose in close to complete unison, the one on the left just after the one on the right. The slugs tore into the Materia Keeper, one in the left shoulder, one in the right. Niro kept his aim perfectly steady, he was born to do this.

"Chunk." "Chunk." "BLAM!" "BLAM!" A spent slug was ejected from each gun, and a new round was automatically loaded into place. Niro adjusted his aim slightly before he pulled the triggers a second time. The rounds went through the shoulders leading to the back legs instead of the front legs this time.

Mirri had already put 5 blades in each of the things legs having replaced her claws once. The thing tried to turn around, either to run or at least kill James before it expired Niro didn't know, nor did he care. "Chunk." "Chunk." "BLAM!" "BLAM!" This time the two rounds were closer together as he put them through the Materia Keeper's head. "Chunk." "Chunk." "CLANG!" "CLANG!" Niro dropped both of the smoking guns just before the monster he had been shooting at dropped to the ground.

Niro allowed himself a satisfied smirk, one more face to put in his collection, one more part for the expert actor to play. That magical electric attack would be fun to use, it felt like it could have taken down a battalion of SOLDIERS all on its own. James was currently busy untangling a roll of gauze that was tied around his neck and placing it around his wounded leg.

Once he did that he stood back up and smiled at the three of them across the huge carcass between them. "Thanks guys, you all okay?" It took a special mind like James' to bother to ask if his friends where okay when he had just finished wrapping his own wounds a moment ago. Mirri took special care to tread on the dead monster as she crossed over it to reach James by the shortest path.

"I've been better James, how is your leg?" James being James, took a moment to lick his finger, and rub it up and down the back of his neck. Seeing that there was no blood coming from his neck, he made his decision. "My leg's pretty good." You couldn't call it respect, you couldn't call it admiration, but whatever the heck it was, James had it from Niro.

James meanwhile after hobbling slightly managed to achieve a fairly decent walk and made his way over to the mouth of the dead Materia Keeper. Then it was just a quick yank to finally free his scythe from the dead monster. "Ha!" James returned the scythe to the strap across his back that kept it steady if not doing much to hide weapon in question.

Alex was currently taking a chance to feed on the meat of the Materia Keeper and apparently gorging himself like he hadn't eaten in days. "Been keeping busy Mirri?" Sephiroth, Aeris, and Vincent emerged from a small cave, and it was Sephiroth who made the announcement while looking at the dead Materia Keeper before him. Mirri bent down and started to remove blades from where she had planted them in the beast.

"You know how I try Sephiroth. By the way, you told me how we were going over the mountain, but would you mind telling me why?" Niro was noncommittal on the entire subject, but he chose a good spot on the dead monster to sit down on. He was used to the principle of being in the dark when it came to why he did something, he existed to kill those who he was told to kill.

James was another breed all together, you give him a clock, and he would rip it apart till he still didn't understand how it worked and it was broken. That was why it was chiefly a good idea to have someone on hand to guide James as he took it apart, then at least he might understand how it works as he broke it.

Sephiroth found a place to sit down, and so did Aeris, Vincent who was starting to look like (in age) he had when Niro had first seen him chose to remain standing. "This is complicated, so everyone try to pay attention. James found an important book in the Shinra Library. Doctor Hojo has been looking for the Black Materia, because it has the power to destroy the Planet." Alex scoffed bitterly at this announcement. /You humans already seem to be doing a fine job when it comes to the process, why do you need to accelerate it?\

Sephiroth ignored Alex's comment and continued. "The Black Materia is supposedly in the Temple of the Ancients, and the book has a map in it, which I took with me. The problem is that to get there we'll need to go either by boat or by air since its on an island that's so far from the mainland, even I'll have trouble swimming there. Which means we need to find someone who can 'lend' us a vehicle one way or another. Also, I want to use Rocket Town as a place to restock our weapon supply, and there's only one person I can think of who would help us with both."

Mirri buried her face in her hands, something Niro had never seen her do before. She was either about to break down, or was dealing with someone who she disliked and couldn't kill. "Melkore... Melkore, Morningstar." Now that name rang a bell with Niro, but it rang an even bigger one with James.

His ears instantly perked up lifting his hat off head slightly. "Morningstar! He's still alive! I thought you killed all of my creators Seph!" Never doubt the power of humanity's ingrained nature to shy away from confrontation. General Sephiroth, a man who made his life making war and being solemn, ignored James' unorthodox shortening of his name. "Morningstar wasn't part of your creation James, he just had the basic idea."

James clapped his hands together in glorious anticipation. "Oh boy, this is gonna rock! It'll be like a family reunion mixed with a surprise birthday party because we didn't know we were alive to each other." Vincent and Aeris did seem to mind being left out, but Vincent wasn't about to question Sephiroth, so Aeris did. "Who is Melkore Morningstar?"

Sephiroth buried his own face in a gloved hand for a moment just like Mirri had. "He's a former Shinra scientist, but he quit when he had to work for Doctor Hojo." Vincent suddenly found the strength of will to enter the conversation. "A Shinra scientist with morals, don't make me laugh."

Sephiroth smothered his face even deeper into his gloved hand. "He doesn't have morals. He just has an ego so big that he refused to work for Doctor Hojo. He used to have his own place in the Shinra hierarchy, and did whatever kind of research he wanted. Specialized in making weapons personalized for SOLDIERS. He didn't make Masamune, but it's the kind of job that he would have done. When the war ended, was given a choice, he could either work for Shinra under Hojo or not at all. He took the good sum of money he had made, gave himself some mako enhancements and Jenova cell injections, and left. He's spent the last decade making various devices, including his own private plane."

Sephiroth had summoned up his courage, and then it was Mirri's turn to continue the recital, with a monotone befitting of Virgil to Dante. "SOLDIERS still visit him to have him make weapons for them. He made my gloves and the system that loads blades into them. He was also practically feeling me up every single moment that he was taking my measurements. Best weapons designed ever, but his personality should go back to the forge."

Alex let out his own dismissive snort at the recital he had heard. /Glasswalkers, they may help sharpen your claws, but don't expect them to use their own.\ Vincent had other thoughts as he was busy feeling the balance of his small pistol. Niro knew why, that pistol would have been well balanced for a human, but SOLDIERS could use much larger weaponry with no trouble.

All double entendres aside, Vincent's gun was too small for him. His desire to acquire appropriate armaments came second to his primary desire however, looking after Sephiroth. "Do you think he can be trusted?" "How can I put this Vincent? You can trust Melkore because he's too egotistical to betray us."

Niro saw an odd smile play on Aeris' face. "That sounds sort of like you Sephiroth." Sephiroth ignored Aeris' comment, and continued on with his explanation. "We better get started again, we'll need to get there before tomorrow morning." "We're on the highway to hell..." "That wasn't funny, Mirri." "I thought it was."

OWAN: I drew a rough lineart of the cast photo, it's crap, but it's probably better than nothing. I'm getting better, honest! You can find the lineart at:

**http/ www. deviantart .com /deviation /22642184/**


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16: He's a man you must belive, helping everyone in need, no one can succeed like Dr. Robert!

FN: Does anybody realize the inherent joke in having a character named Melkore Morningstar? If you do, leave a review telling it to me, and a scene you want me to add to the piece, and if it's viable I will do it.

FN2: Oh yeah, the original "Sylvia" appeared in the works of Yasuhiro Nightow, and was a saxophone. "No Cure for Cancer" Is property of Dennis Leary, who should be cast to play Cid Highwind, (the Cid Highwind from FFVII of course) in any production. And Finally "Casull" belongs to Kohta Hirano, in who's work it does use clips. Wow, I use a lot of stuff I don't own.

Melkore Morningstar woke up and inhaled deeply. The scent that had permeated his entire life filled his nostrils, and he smiled. "I love the smell of oil in the morning, smells like... victory."

As usual Melkore had fallen asleep at his worktable, his latest project in front of him. Melkore slowly rose form his state of living death, and began creating the special mixture that he had found was capable of adding and expanding life unto infinity, coffee. Once had ingested enough of the mixture that he felt truly alive he looked down at the previously full but now quite empty mug of coffee, and wondered.

Was there not some more efficient way of doing this? A caffeine patch that he could just slap across his wrist whenever he woke up? It would solve the eternal chicken and egg dilemma of needing to drink coffee before he could successful brew coffee that didn't corrode the mug he poured it into. Sadly, before Melkore could indulge in another day of following flights of fancy wherever they lead him, his doorbell rang.

He walked over and opened it, then he instantly wished that he hadn't. Melkore was literally knocked of his feet. He was struck by a blur of red, that took him down, and then his ears were struck by an annoyingly chipper voice. "MELKORE!" Before Melkore had any chance to understand he heard a familiar voice speak. "You know Melkore, payback should always be this sweet."

Melkore knew that voice very well, it belonged to one of his favorite customers,

Mirri Catwarrior. "You always fought low, Mirri. So who is this?" The man on top of

Melkore had a physical description to match his vocal one, he was short, young, and bright eyed. "I'm James Firecat! I'm the result of Project Patchwork!"

Project Patchwork, who the hell would guess that it would actually pay off?

Melkore pushed James off him, stood back up, and examined who he was dealing with. Mirri was in the front, behind her a man with black sunglasses and black hair, he was of indeterminate age. After him was a man in red and black with dull red eyes. After him was a rather attractive girl in pink with green eyes and brown hair. Next to her was a tall man with silver hair and green eyes, oh shit, it was going to be one of _those_ days.

------------------------

Dr. Melkore didn't look much like Dr. Hojo to Vincent, which was a good thing.

Vincent was starting to feel a touch of hunger in him, and if he saw someone who looked

like Hojo he might want to grab a bite to drink.

Dr. Melkore had brown hair, mako enhanced blue eyes, and wore a white labcoat

that had not been washed in a long time. It was stained with what looked like a mixture of machine oil and blood. He had invited them into his house with a mixture of reservation and hopes for making money off the groups problem, whatever it was. His house was filled with various discarded weapons and other pieces of scrap metal.

He was all business at first, he pulled out a bundle wrapped in brown paper and passed it to Mirri. "Your traditional order of blades Mirri, you probably need them if you're coming to me instead of waiting for delivery. With that out of the way, what can I do for you fine gentlemen, lady, and Mirri?" Master was to the point, it was clearly something of a habit for him. "We need to borrow the Eagle." Melkore shook his head and wandered off for a moment, when he came back he leaned a black guitar case against his seat.

"Sorry General, assuming you are Sephiroth. I make weapons, I don't do travel, the Eagle is my private ship. I don't lend it to anyone. So do any of you need weapons?"

James' hand shot up, instantly. "I need a new scythe." Mirri nudged Aeris' shoulder, and she slowly raised her hand and spoke hesitantly. "I need a new staff."

Now that was a interesting interaction to watch, but then Aeris and Mirri were both interesting to watch. Not that way, Vincent had been dead for 30 years, his tastes had moved from flesh to blood a long time ago. They were both virgins of course, Vincent could tell that by the smell of their blood pulsing through their bodies.

Melkore was a virgin, James was a virgin, Niro was a virgin, hell, the only two people in the room who weren't virgins were Alex and Vincent. Due to the unfortunate loss of his sex drive that seemed to have accompanied his resurrection, Vincent's interest in both Mirri and Aeris was mostly academic.

Both of them had brown hair (even if parted by a streak of white with Mirri) and green eyes, just like she had. But there the similarity of the outer body just accented the differences of the soul within. Aeris was almost a reincarnation that had made Vincent want to rub his eyes to make sure they were not deceived.

She had been taller, but height was the least of the things Vincent cared about.

She was uncertain, at times shy because of her inexperience, yet at the same time thoroughly forthright when others were unwilling to say anything. She looked at everything with wide-eyed wonder, as if wanting to see it from all angles. She was kind, she was caring, she was not truly tested in battle, eager yet unwilling to prove herself at it.

Aeris had a universal concern for life, the same way she had. Most critically, there was that air of mystery that drew one in about her, a wolf behind bars and a tamed dog looking at each other. One of them in a prison of metal built to keep them in because by nature they were dangerous. Through those bars it looked at an animal like it, yet so different, so impossible to understand.

It had been beaten, broken, trained to react on command, and was unprepared to defend itself. But then the wolf who knew so much more then the dog would only have it's small cell to pace back and forth in, while the dog could go wherever it wanted.

Where was the fairness in that, that the wild where caged and the tame were let to run wild? Vincent had walked that road, he knew where it led, and if the wolf could not, or would not bend the bars of his cell, then it was a study in pain.

Mirri offered something else entirely. A broken mirror, a distorted reflection, a twisted interpretation, which offered dark pleasures with every motion. Mirri was the inversion of what she had been, but Vincent could not deny that the opposite of what he believed to be attractive was just as sensuous to him.

Woe betide the man who taught he saw lack of strength because of willingness, he would live a short life after meeting Mirri. If Vincent tried to take her blood without asking he was quite sure he would get more then he bargained for.

First it would be Mirri's teeth, however unfitted for the task, sinking themselves into Vincent's throat in retaliation. Then he would find himself being forced beneath her, her neck bleeding yet out of reach as she mounted him like a chocobo. Vincent dispelled that mental sequence of events before it reached its truly indecent stages.

Why Vincent found it attractive, he didn't even have to ask: the unstoppable spirit offered him everything he had never had. If she had been like Mirri then it never would have come to this, Hojo would have been found one day with his own guts split wide open in his bed, and there would be no fingerprints on the blade. Mirri always wore gloves.

If Aeris offered total untainted purity, Mirri had total impenetrable security.

Vincent would be as safe at her breast as a child at her mother's. Vincent was an immortal vampire, so why did he find the concept of safety so appetizing? Because what need did Vincent have for a gun under his pillow if he lay next to Mirri? What fear did he need that his inhumanity might offend or endanger her? His inhuman power could prove as attractive to her as her inhuman confidence was to him.

Mirri offered a chance to completely unwind himself and bare every vestige of his soul. No hidden secrets, no tightly wound muscles prepared to leap into danger, just complete contentment. The sanctity of an unhallowed temple whose crosses had long since been exchanged for pentagrams and whose holy wine had become kegs of beer.

Even a vampire could only envy the strength with which Mirri held herself, and the way she used it. Aeris would bend rather than break, but Mirri was something else. She didn't bend, she just got out of the way, or fought back, she didn't try to stand still and take it, she either dodged or dished it back out.

Did purity of mind and body hold any candle to this being which was not quite normal even to a vampire? The answer was quite clear to some one who Vincent could see at this moment. James Firecat was not truly stretched across Mirri's lap for her to stroke him behind the ears, but he might as well have been.

Was it fair to say that this man James Firecat favored safety over purity, that he was a coward in romance, no. For that was yet another one of Mirri's numerous attractions, she offered her own kind of purity (the kind that was typically left after an area had been swept with white phosphorus) as well as safety, to lesser men, a god herself made flesh, cries in her name would not go unanswered. James had seen, and he had fallen in line, he was even now completely uncoiling himself, body and soul for Mirri to observe, tension and fear had no meaning to him.

His blood told the story of his life, and short as it was, the blood spoke with great strength. What was love if it did not mean safety? What was love if it meant keeping secrets from each other or the world? What was love if you could not shout it to the hills? Love wasn't something two people horded to them selves, it was something two people shared with the world, and dam the world if it didn't accept the gift.

James' blood was yet another damnation of the "love" he had held close years ago and had yet to let go of. Vincent would not let go now either, his own blood had questions that it shouted back to James' as they met an intermingled with one another.

What is love if it means someone having to submit, even willingly? Would you call what we did last night love?

How I dug into your neck, was that I love? It was nothing more then base animal instinct, what I needed to survive! Love is suppose to be between two adults, not between a parent and a child! Your love is nothing but a perverted sense of loyalty!

James blood stood up for what it believed in just as much as Vincent's.

Why must love be human? Reproduction is animal, and the desire for reproduction is what gives birth to love. I can't reproduce, doesn't that make my love far less animal then yours ever was? Why don't you call this, a kind of loyalty called love?

Watching James, Vincent deeply wished to once again sink his fangs into his neck and draw more of his blood into him. Not only would more of James' blood make him younger, it had another effect. It acted as an anesthesia to memories and thoughts that

haunted Vincent, because it was so alive.

All of these thoughts flashed through Vincent's mind, and then he acted. He raised his metallic left hand into the air quite sure that it would get Melkore's attention. "I need a new gun."

Melkore took an odd look at Vincent, rubbed his chin for a moment and then stood up parting his labcoat to reveal the "white" (it had been splattered in much the same manor as his labcoat) pants and shirt he wore. "Okay then, three specialized weapons, just one important question before I get started, who's paying? Usual rates, three jobs, 300,000 gill, all up front, my work is guaranteed, refills and reloads once a year are free."

Vincent cast a questioning glance at Sephiroth, 300,000 gill was a substantial sum of money. Master, with his usual confidence, however, was ready. He removed a small card and held it up causing the thing to almost shimmer as the light hit it. "Tell me Doctor, do you protect your customers?" Melkore was busy rubbing his hands together at the sight of the card, and Vincent mentally slapped himself for not realizing what it was sooner.

Shinra hadn't changed that much in 30 years, they still issued mythril debit cards to their prominent officers to save them from having to carry around huge sums of money on them. They also hadn't updated their security much either. James had explained the situation to Vincent well enough, Master had broke way from Shinra five years ago, and they still hadn't frozen his assets with the company.

Melkore was of course salivating because money taken from that card was the most stable currency in the world, Shinra would topple before it did. Melkore looked around the room, found a suitable machine, blew some dust off it and placed it before Master talking all the while.

"General Sephiroth, allow me to say that I offer my customers the strictest confidence regardless of their occupations! I hold these transactions with the same level of impartiality that a doctor would show his patients in a hospital. If you put down the money then not even being branded with hot coals would make me say you did!"

Vincent doubted that statement, Melkore did not look like the kind of person who had a high pain tolerance. Sephiroth ran the card through the machine, and typed in the necessary amount. The screen flashed with a successful deduction and Vincent saw how much money was left on the card. Vincent was closer to shock then he'd been since he'd died: Master was _loaded_!

Nor was Vincent the only one who happened to see this piece of information. Mirri saw it, and reacted much the way Vincent might have reacted when he was human. "Sephiroth, a question. If you're carrying around that much on that card, why is James buying us cars? I mean, you have to be right up there with Shinra executives, money wise. 'Oops, I dropped 5 million gil!'"

Master glared at Mirri, she did not retreat, but she did stop her advance and prepare to hold her ground. "Because it's incredibly easy to trace. Everywhere we went people would know who I was because I used that card. The good doctor, however, has made it quite clear that he wouldn't think of doing such a thing."

There was an uneasy silence. Master knew that Melkore could still betray them. But Melkore knew that after he finished his work Sephiroth could kill him and take his plane. So Melkore decided to do what he did best to break the tension. "Okay then, which of you three are going to step forward and be the first to be measured for your weapons?" Vincent stepped forward, the sooner it was done the sooner he could find someone who wouldn't truly miss a pint of blood.

------------------------

The entire affair was almost magical for Aeris to watch. She had never believed in violence, but she had never realized just how much artistry went into making its tools. Melkore's first tools for the process were a large sketchbook and fairly new pencil. After he had done what looked like quick sketches of his clients, he began to rapidly trace out columns and rows to be filled with information. Then he pulled out a tape measure and got to work on Vincent who was somewhat abashed at the process. "You're wasting your time."

Melkore did a quick measurement of Vincent's right arm, then his left (as much of it as there was) arm and the prosthetic attached to it. "Don't tell a doctor how to do his job" was Melkore's only reply as he then started to get to work on Vincent's chest. Aeris could guess why Vincent had said that, he had been a very old man in that coffin, a young one this morning, and now he was in middle age.

Granted she guessed she was probably going to see more of the last two, not that she knew all that much about vampires. Still it was a good point, getting Vincent's measurements didn't help much when they changed with his age. But Melkore didn't seem to mind, the entire process went on for what felt like an hour. Vincent's arms, chest, legs, length of each individual finger, length of hand, rows of columns and figures were filled with information.

Finally all the information must have been completed because Melkore slammed the book shut. "That'll take care of everything. I think I can take a standard first class SOLDIER pistol and modify it. I've got one on hand, tell me how it feels." Melkore took a moment to move various pieces of machinery and scrape around before unearthing a shinning silver pistol.

He handed it to Vincent who balanced it in his right hand for a moment before speaking. "Still a touch too light, what kind of bullets does this thing use?" "10 MM, but from the specifics I got from your left 'hand', and the kind of balance it has, I think 13MM are warranted. I have plenty of those around here for rifles. I'll have to give you a revolver style weapon, but the hammer going back will be the safety rather then needed for every shot. You'll have to reload each chamber individually, but I don't have 13MM pistol clips lying around. Entire job take me, oh, two to three hours. Next patient?"

James said something about "last in first out" and gestured for Aeris to go forward, which she did. Once again Melkore got down to work sketching columns and rows, before he got to work with the tape measure. As Mirri suggested, it was obvious that Dr. Melkore was walking a fine line as he took the measurements, but as long as he didn't cross it Aeris didn't vocally object.

Aeris had never been measured for a dress but she could imagine that it would feel just like this. It felt odd, neither right nor wrong, just odd, to know so much precision went into the creation of something to cause destruction. Notes were sketched, numbers written, erased and rewritten. It was all adding up to some kind of unexplainable equation in Melkore's head as he wrote them down. Finally, he closed the book and took a few moments to examine what he had written.

Then like a doctor having performed a particular difficult diagnosis he made his decisions. "Nothing particularly interesting about this job. Need a well crafted staff, metal would let you strike harder, but wood makes a better material for conducting magic through. Not that much to say, staffs are easy, only take me about an hour and a half to make. Chief advantage of getting them this way is that I'll guarantee that the thing feels perfectly balanced for you. Now for the last one."

James stepped forward, and Melkore looked him up once and down, he did not open his book this time. Instead he reached under his desk, and pulled out a small silver case. He opened it revealing a pair of red gloves and pushed the case over towards James. "Here you are, go nuts."

James looked down at the gloves in surprise that clearly everyone else was feeling as well, those red gloves looked no different the ones he was currently wearing. "What about all that other stuff?" Melkore reached under his desk, and moved aside yet more stuff till he finally found what he was looking for. From under his desk he produced a small golden booklet that he laid on top of the gloves.

The title read "Genetic Sequence, Project Patchwork: A road map of the not so human genome." James opened it and squinted at what he found inside, the logic of it clearly escaping him. "Do any of you guys get this?" James held the book open, and flipped through a couple of pages, leaving Aeris just as confused as he was. The pages were filled various combinations of the letters "G" "A" "T" and "C" into four letter groups with numbers interspaced between each group.

Not even Sephiroth was able to make any particular sense out of the book, he recognized it as genetic code, but that was about as far as his understanding went. Melkore, seeing the surprised look on the faces of his guests snatched the book from James' hands. He held the book out cover first towards the group like a preacher displaying the good book to a very primitive tribe of people. "I can't fing believe this! Assuming Shinra didn't decide to screw around with my work, this book holds a perfect mapping of his genetic code! Since none of you understand the power of science, allow me to demonstrate."

Melkore flipped through the book till he found what he was looking for. Proudly holding up page 67 of the book he read with determination what no one else could see. "Eyes: red!" What followed was almost like a warped version of a one man cheerleading routine. Melkore would flip to a random page, apparently written in a language only he could deduce. "HAIR: RED!" "DOMINANT HAND: LEFT!" "BLOOD TYPE: O" "REUSES FACTOR: NEGATIVE!"

This continued with Melkore chanting out various totally irrelevant facts, which, judging from the surprise on James' face, were all true. Eventually seeing that he had at last managed to garner some respect he tossed the book back down on the table, and the magician revealed his trick. "Tarot cards, palm reading, crystal balls, numerology, horoscopes, nothing but idiots making stupid guesses! That book is the one true method for divining the future because it contains a perfectly traced genetic code down to every single chromosome!"

There was a slight pause, then James dived on the book with reckless abandon. He managed to grab the book, but sadly slid right off the table and landed in a jumble of limbs, his head buried in the book. "So if this thing has my life story, what are my lucky numbers? 3? 13? 18? 88?" Melkore bent down, and after a rather protracted struggle with James, managed to retrieve the book from his clutches.

"It's not that kind of book. More importantly, those gloves are yours… James, I believe? They were one of the few things that Shinra didn't take from me when I split with them. According to your genetic pattern, you're particularly adapted to their use, so you'll already know how to use them. I have some weapons to be making." With that he headed up the stairs leaving the rest of the group alone, and pondering what exactly to make of the encounter.

Halfway up the stairs there was a series of loud thumps as the book slid down the stairs. Once again James leapt for it, and once again he was a bit too focused on his goal, which caused him to slam into a wall.

------------------------

Sephiroth drummed his hands on the table. James, thank god(s), was enjoying himself with the book, reading his DNA. But Sephiroth had been inside for too long, it

was time to go for a walk. "Vincent, stay here" he added the words as he took a single look back as he left the door. Vincent looked at him like a very small puppy who had just been kicked, wonderful. The last thing Sephiroth needed at the moment was a codependent vampire hanging around with him.

As he walked through the streets he saw something, something that was different.

Sephiroth had spent his life observing his foes, and he was good at telling people by the way they walked. In Midgar, people hustled about with fear in their walks, knowing what would happen to them if they didn't. In Cosmo they walked with the slow dreamlike walk that James usually had, the look that said "I don't have anything to do, so why rush?" Here, everyone walked slowly, but it wasn't the slowness of those without purpose, it was what Mirri would call a "swagger".

It was the way people in upper Midgar walked, a walk that said "Look at me, I'm successful, rich, and, if I can't take it with me, I'll just spend it all on my funeral!"

Sephiroth, after a moment's thought, understood the connection. Shinra ruled all business inside Midgar, and neither Corel, Nibelhiem, or Cosmo Canyon did enough business to challenge them. But Rocket Town, it was home to people like Melkore who were brain drain from Midgar, who wanted more freedom.

What could Shinra do to stop them? They weren't making power, unlike Corel, they were just making things. They paid Shinra for power, and what could Shinra do to stop them from working? After all, how exactly did you audit someone like Melkore, when all his income came from unverifiable sources, and all his outcome could be listed under "weapons of death".

Shinra had gone to the top, but their company wasn't in charge, capitalism was, however powerful Shinra was, people only paid for what they wanted. The only way to stop this was for Shinra to ban capitalism, which made about as much sense as a priest deciding to ban all religions. Then another question popped into his mind. Who was in charge? As a general, who was in charge was very important. If they were in charge on his side, then as a general, it was his job to make death threats to them. If they were in charge on the other side, it was his job to actually kill them. Not that there hadn't been times during his tenure at Shinra when he had been dearly tempted to try it the other way around.

Well, now he was, but only because he had changed his side. That was how the world works, you couldn't change who you were or your principles, you could only change your side. Sephiroth would have to find who this in charge of this town, there had to be someone in charge. Even Costa Del Sol had a director of tourism, which was all the town was really there for, so he counted as a leader.

"The mayor isn't here right now." How wonderful, like so many times when

Sephiroth's mind was deep in thought his body was deep in action. It normally happened in combat, but now his body, sensing him wanting to find a leader, had made him walk towards the largest building in the town.

The man standing outside it had apparently, thought, (well he was right) that Sephiroth wanted to find who was in charge. Since he couldn't do that, Sephiroth would just have to find about him. "Oh, sorry, I'm just trying to find some things out.

How long has he been gone?" The man did not look like a guard, he looked like a clerk

and he was talking to Sephiroth like he would any other tourist. Maybe if they all hung cameras around their necks and spoke in overly obvious accents he wouldn't have any trouble getting all of them back into Midgar.

"He's been gone about a week, you can tell because the clouds of smoke are starting to finally disperse from over his house. That's all he really does around here smoke and work on his CD, 'No Cure for Cancer.'" Sephiroth didn't ask about that, no matter how much he wanted to. "So he's a 'live and let live' type of ruler?" The man took a moment to laugh at private joke.

"If by 'let live' you mean verbally abuse, then yes. And if by ruler you mean 'man who verbally abuses everyone else and gets away with it' then yes. Mr. Highwind isn't really in charge, because no one is. We just do our jobs, and don't make trouble."

Sephiroth nodded, and made his way into a convenient alley. Had he been the type, he would have burst into laughter.

He was right, as a general, Sephiroth took great pride in being right and took more pride in the system being right. The army was a system, the government was a system, the economy was a system, and systems ran humans not the other way around. He had realized that when he had become a general, and realized how little control a general had.

To put a finger on it, being a general gave you as much control (and a little less safety) as you had riding a flaming chocobo.

What it came down to was running forward, and hoping like hell that your men followed you, or that you could do it yourself. Sephiroth had been luckier than most generals, because he could do a lot more alone than most people. Shinra was a system, but it was not the only system. Here was what would ultimately be the death of Shinra, or at least what would replace it afterwards. "Lost in thought, General? That's not like you."

Sephiroth looked up at the voice, it came from a man with mako enhanced eyes, but he was not dressed in the traditional blue Shinra SOLDIER outfit. Instead he was dressed in black and white, and Sephiroth instantly recognized his face. He hadn't forgotten the faces of any of his Seraphim. "Jace, you always did have a horrible sense of timing." "Shinra told me the Great Sephiroth was in the area. What's wrong, got nowhere else to run?"

"Have you forgotten?" "Forgotten what?" "Everything I taught you." Before Sephiroth had finished speaking, Jace leapt for him, but Masamune was in his hands before the SOLDIER even began his swing. The clarion ring of steel on steel echoed in the air, and Sephiroth launched his opponent backwards with a flick of his wrist. Jace flipped in midair, landing on his feet.

"You've still got your reflexes, I see. Good, it'd be a lousy fight if you'd lost your edge!" Sephiroth settled into a relaxed stance, Masamune held in his right hand, his left foot trailing. His image shifted, and Jace yelped as he narrowly deflected the strike. He launched into a series of cuts, stabs and swings, all of which were deflected or evaded at the last moment. Sephiroth struck again, another flickering slash that Jace deflected and spun into, bringing himself within reach of the ex-General. He thrust his blade in a short stroke, which Sephiroth swiftly sidestepped. "You were never as fast as the others."

Jace's visage twisted into a snarl at that. "How dare you! You think you can ditch us, then come back and toy with me?" Jace followed this with a low strike that he let flow into an overhead chop, hoping to catch Sephiroth by surprise. As Jace's sword slashed through the space that Sephiroth, upon last check, had been occupying, he realized his error: his own blade formed an optical barrier. Sephiroth could have gone anywhere!

"Ten years ago, I led you to water. It seems I still cannot make you think," murmured a soft baritone from over his left shoulder. Jace whirled in anger, lashing out with blade and word; "Take me seriously, dammit! Stop playing! Show me the vaunted 'Killing Dance'!"

"So be it." Sephiroth's features hardened, and as he deflected Jace's next attack, he shifted his grip and struck, severing Jace's arm. Sliding into his trademark guard position, he glided forward, impaling the SOLDIER and lifting him off of the ground. "My third lesson: 'You can't talk and fight at the same time'. You really have forgotten."

As Sephiroth held his former comrade aloft, he whispered softly: "Who are we?"

Jace responded through a swiftly gathering haze: "We are the Seraphim." Sephiroth's lips quirked into a sad smile as he and Jace recited the oath that had once bound the best of the best: "We live for battle, we die for glory, all our lives be spent in war. Beyond the petty schemes of men, the Seraphim forever soar…"

As the words faded into empty air, Sephiroth realized that he was talking to himself: Jace was dead. "You fought for another man's glory, and shall receive a funeral befitting a pawn. You died with dignity, and shall be remembered as a worthy comrade. Rest in peace, soldier." With this last, Sephiroth's eyes began to glow, backlit by jade flames. Sephiroth raised his left hand, and sheets of fire lashed out from it, quickly transforming the corpse on his blade into a pyre-kabob.

As the flames died away, Sephiroth shook the ashes from his sword and clothes, sheathed Masamune, and headed back to town, shaking his head slightly. "Only five left. Will I miss them?"

-------------------------

Melkore put down his tools. The staff was good, the gun was better. The gloves were the best however, but then he had already handed them to their new owner. He looked down at his watch and then looked outside. Time flies when you're making weapons apparently, because it was already starting to get dark. To be fair he might have overestimated just how long it would take him to create the weapons.

He took a moment to look at a small note he had written on his arm in what he hoped was less then permanent ink. Project Patchwork was James Firecat. The girl who wasn't Mirri was Aeris Gainsborough. The guy dressed in green was Alexander Diamondclaw, which was, in all fairness, a really weird last name. The one with the black sunglasses was Niro Rose. The gun belonged to Vincent Valentine, who had blood red eyes.

Now well versed in the names of his clients that he hadn't possessed the time to memorize previously, he prepared to go downstairs. That's when he took a slightly longer look through the single window in his workshop. That window had never done anything but cause trouble.

This time it gave him an exclusive look at the veritable procession of Shinra vehicles that was coming to a stop in front of his house. Of all the times for his habit of arming anyone with enough cash prove inconvenient to him, this was the worse. If he didn't have customers he could have just jumped in the Eagle, flown off, crashed it, and changed his name before setting up shop in Midgar.

Now he would have to actually open the door, and today had proved that opening doors was just inviting trouble in. He walked downstairs, the gun and staff held in either hand. He tossed them on the table, and shot each of his guests a disapproving look. "The gun's name is Casull, and all of you guys had better start hiding or something, because there's a huge Shinra parade going on outside. I may or may not close the door on them, they may have a better internet connection or a cable package with more channels to offer me."

He then went over to the black guitar case that he reserved for special occasions, especially bad ones. He opened it, and carefully slung the guitar across his chest, the words "Sylvia" written in black across it. Melkore had personally made the guitar, and it would be useful for times like this. Because you were about to open the door to the people who owned over half the world and were busily hunting for the people who had probably been freeloading in your living room (probably freeloading, 100 chance they had been in his living room) all day, you had better be damn sure of where your guitar was!

You just didn't forget that kind of thing, it would be like cracking jokes at a funeral (this was a bad example, as Melkore had been rightly accused of doing this several times on different occasions) or turning without signaling (he did this also) your intentions. He opened the door and came face to face with the new President Shinra, and his bodyguard. Both of them were familiar to Melkore, Rufus Shinra hadn't been old enough to fire Melkore a decade ago, but Melkore knew enough about him, and seen him a few times.

His bodyguard was a Turk named Tseng for whom Melkore had made a rather remarkable 9MM pistol. Neither of the men were brandishing weapons at Melkore's person, and apparently most of the guards present seemed to ceremonial, that was a good thing.

Rufus even went so far as to offer his hand for Melkore to shake, instead of going for his double-barreled shotgun. "Mr. Morningstar, I'd like to congratulate you!" Melkore shook the president's hand while attempting not to sneer, he hadn't spent years studying chemistry to be called "Mr.", thank you very much.

But he was talking to a man who had so much money that he could have Melkore killed (it would be a pleasant way to go) by crushing him with bags filled with gil, so Melkore tried to be polite. "Why Mr. President, I don't even know what I've done recently that deserves the honor!"

As Melkore said that he grabbed Rufus' fist in a "hearty" handshake. Hearty meaning that it was the kind of handshake that Melkore used to get in high school from jocks with more girls then brain cells. That had been one of the main reasons Melkore had been so eager to give himself enhancements. Now he could give bone crushing, circulation stopping, greetings in the name of joviality.

Rufus Shinra hadn't had mako injections, and it looked like he might have to go to a chiropractor when Melkore finally let his hand go. After he finished a not so subtle (in the sense that neither was a 88CM weapon) attempt to shake the pain out of his hand Rufus continued with much less humor in his voice.

"Simple, we've finally finished a prototype of your greatest weapon ever, and we believe now might be a good time to renew your work with the Shinra organization." They had completed a prototype of Melkore's greatest weapon, meaning that he wasn't going to get any money out of it. It also meant that he might finally be getting some recognition. But why the hell would Shinra be working on that thing now, it was made to end a war.

Using it to deal with the people currently residing in Melkore's house was like using a rocketlauncher to swat flies. "Under what conditions would I be working for Shinra?" Rufus was still attempting to rid of the pain in his right hand so Tseng spoke. "Dr. Morningstar, Shinra would be willing to offer you a great sum of money in return for your continued work."

Melkore repeated his question and this time Rufus reluctantly answered. "We are currently tracking down some rebels and the man who killed my father. For this we would greatly appreciate the services of the Eagle as a transport ship. As for your position you would be working for Scarlet, the head of the weapons department." That wasn't any better than working for Dr. Hojo, no amount of money was worth giving up artistic freedom.

"I'm afraid I have to respectfully decline." You didn't say no to the old president of Shinra, and apparently Rufus planned to follow in his father's footsteps. "I'm afraid that you don't have a choice Morningstar." A SOLDIER with glowing eyes began to advance, weapon drawn. It was a very good thing at this point that Melkore had decided to bring Sylvia with him.

He carefully began to "tune" his guitar in what looked like a unplanned motion. Then carefully aiming his guitars neck so that it pointed straight at President Shirna's chest, he ran his right hand down the chords. As he did so he began to calmly sing to himself in time with the tune he was playing.

"The players tried to take the field, but the marching band refused to yield, do you recall what was revealed?" Melkore singing did very little to cover up the sound of machinery that was coming from Sylvia. The sound, of course, was caused by the fact that the guitar was about to display her more exotic features. In this case the head of the guitar was spinning around like a screw coming undone, which, in a sense, it was.

Just as it did so, a new piece of machinery shot into its place. This piece of machinery was a six barreled gatling gun, with the strings connected to a trigger. If Tseng hadn't been so dam determined to do his job (how much was he getting paid for it, probably more then Melkore would as a doctor with a PHD) decided he wanted to be a hero.

In this case as Melkore's hands began to play the strings, but generating a rhythm no longer the goal, Tseng knocked Rufus to the ground in an energetic leap that carried them both out of Melkore's field of vision. Sadly the SOLDIER was not so lucky, there was no one to knock him out of the way.

He got a full verse of Melkore's own personal version of "Taps" along with several bullets through vital organs. As he fell backwards Melkore stepped back and with a flourish knocked the door shut with Sylvia before he locked it. This action would be about as useful as if he was doing it against a tidal wave, but he didn't care.

"Hey guys, wherever you are, we're gonna have company, and I'll make you a deal! If any of us survive what comes next, you can fing _keep_ the Eagle!" His offer made, Melkore jumped for cover as his door was turned to swiss cheese by a hail of Shinra gunfire. Apparently the group was less ceremonial then it looked. Either that or Shinra was starting to steal even the ideas he had never told them about.

-------------------------

Shinra guards rushed in, the sound that emanated from within was like a heavy machine gun firing, except it also was blending with a touch of finger style guitar. Dead bodies hit the floor. Tseng watched them fall and bit back a curse in his native Wutian.

"President Shinra, we can't do this. We don't have any explosives on us. We can't match personal firearms against foes who are deeply entrenched, regardless of how many men we have." Rufus Shinra however would not be deterred. "Very well Tseng, what do you suggest? We find a way to call in some tanks? We barricade this house till they starve to death? We just turn around and let them go? I want solutions not problems Tseng!"

Tseng kept his face neutral, years of Turk training taught a person to swallow any order. Thus he didn't say "Maybe you shouldn't have tried to twist the arm of a man who makes his living creating weapons as if he were some civilian." Instead he gave the answer that actually could help the problem.

"We surround the house. Whatever that thing is, they can't guard all the possible entrances. I'm going to enter through the roof, other SOLDIERS can try and find side and back entrances. Do you think you can look after yourself Mr. President?" It was somewhat difficult for Tseng to say that without sounding like a babysitter, but there it was.

Rufus gave him a glare worthy of Tseng's statement before he started barking orders to the troops. "SURROUND THE HOUSE! Block all the entrances and make sure not to damage the Eagle!" Fairly certain that things were in good order, Tseng took another moment to examine the house.

The second story had one obvious window, that would do quite nicely. Thanks to his mako and Jenova enhancements it was easy to make the jump, and he even managed to perfectly go through the window and land inside the house. The first thing he saw when he landed was the single living occupant of the room. A man with his face buried in a book with a golden cover.

He had no weapon in sight, but he clearly heard Tseng's arrival because he put down the book. Tseng revised his guess, the person wasn't really a man, he looked about as young as Tseng had been when he had first become a Turk. He was reclining in a chair that probably belonged to Melkore, and his entire body language spoke of total relaxation.

"Sephiroth told me that if anyone tried to come down the stairs I was to stop them." Tseng already had his pistol in hand. "Too bad." "BLAM!" Just as Tseng had started to pull the trigger the guy acted. He reached for the closest source of protection that he could find. The hardcover golden book stopped the round probably about halfway through it.

The man dropped the now damaged book to the floor and glared at Tseng as if he had just killed his pregnant spouse. "You just shot my life!" Tseng didn't acknowledge those words, he simply pulled the trigger again, and again the man showed incredibly irritating ingenuity. He pushed the against the desk with his legs causing the wheeled chair to slide across the room, carrying him out of the line of fire.

Tseng bit back another curse, he didn't have time to be playing around with this fool. His foe didn't even have a weapon, Tseng took several steps closer, and at practically point blank range he pulled the trigger. The red hat was blown clear off his foes head by the bullet, which Tseng had not exactly aimed properly. The hat was located slightly higher on his target then it would be on most people.

Thus a shot directly through the center of it blew through the hat but not the man's head. The reason for this dislocation was then revealed to Tseng, the hat was higher on the man's head because he had a pair of cat ears, both of which were now raised straight up in alarm. That went a long way to explaining why the hell Tseng had fired three shots at a pathetically short distance without hitting anything but a book and a hat.

You would think Shinra would put more effort into controlling its science experiments, but then Sephiroth had already proved otherwise. "James Firecat, you've just run out of lives." Tseng put the barrel of his gun to James' unresisting head. He pulled the trigger. He dropped to the floor, his legs yanked out from under him. Despite years of training and experience, he was not able to keep his gun straight as he dropped to the floor.

The bullet shot harmlessly into the ceiling. Tseng looked down and discovered that a cat like red tail which lead back to James was wrapped around his right leg. Tseng stared at it in disbelief, he must be losing his touch. There was no other reason for how he had been able to use four bullets without actually hitting anything. He was still practically point blank range, point the gun up at James' heart and shoot, it sounded so simple.

It was very simple up to the point where James' tail uncoiled from around his leg with impossible speed, and slapped against his hand with a crack like a whip. The blow struck as he was pulling the trigger, and his fifth bullet wasted itself into the wall to the left of James. Tseng dropped the gun as pain shot up his hand, James' tail had plenty of snap to it.

It was impossible, James just sat there, five bullets, and Tseng knew that if he went for the gun with the other hand James would let him pick it up. Then he would get the tail again as he pulled the trigger, all six bullets. What the hell was James thinking, he was smacking the crap out of Tseng, but he hadn't done anything more then what he needed to do to dodge bullets. "James, what the hell are you waiting for?" "Huh?"

Tseng decided that it wasn't worth going for the gun right now, he might be able to relax James into a false sense of security. That would have been a good plan, except for the fact that if James got any more relaxed, his body would slide down into a puddle of liquid Firecat.

"Why don't you pull out a gun and shoot me or something?" James lazily pushed the chair away from Tseng, and looked back at his book. "Well I am sort of peeved about you shooting a hole in my genetic structure, but that's hardly a good reason for killing you. We'll be booking this place, your not keeping me from getting anything I want. No reason to kill you."

Just his luck, Tseng had to get his ass handed to him by a pacifist, wonderful. "So what are you going to do now? "James picked back up the book Tseng had shot, as if trying to see how much damage it had suffered. The damage of course was extensive, books did not take bullets without getting pieces blown out of them. Tseng finally stood back up and picked his gun. "So you're just going to sit here and wait?" James flipped through pages in the book till he finally found one that hadn't been damaged by the bullet.

Sadly because he had been holding the book with the cover towards himself all

the pages in the book after this one were bullet damaged. Seeing this small problem,

James decided that he would just read it backwards. "Yeah, that's the general idea. I sit

here waiting for Sephiroth to tell me when we book out, and till then I'll read this."

James' head was deeply buried in the book to the point of completely ignoring the

rest of the world. Tseng didn't aim for his head, that was guarded by the book. But James' heart made for a wonderful target, one that Tseng couldn't resist, he had one bullet left. He fired, and instantly regretted it.

James simply collapsed across the chair, kicked against the desk and spun the chair around. The end result was that the bullet was perfectly caught by the book this time through the books cover. He held open the book, and the second bullet dropped out from the tunnel it had dug in the book. "You know, that's sort of irritating, now I don't even have a book to read!"

James made this announcement while he was looking at Tseng upside down, still holding onto the book. He spun the chair around again, sat up, and tossed the book at Tseng. "Now I'm gonna have to take your gun."

James crisscrossed his hands, and suddenly Tseng saw strands of white wire stretched between his gloved hands. As Tseng comprehended this, he felt his entire body going cold, this was new, and yet painfully familiar. He had used garrote wire plenty of times to strangle people, but he had never seen garrote wire between gloves.

Whatever his stuff was it was not that however, it was much more frightening then just long range garrote wire. The wire wrapped itself around Tseng's gun, and then

James yanked it from his hand. As it did so the gun was sliced neatly into two separate halves.

To be exact, the barrel was separated from the rest of the gun. The two broken pieces fell to the floor and Tseng looked down at them in mute horror. Wire that could do that to a gun could easily slice through a person's skin and bones. War had just reached a new level of hell.

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Vincent snapped open his new gun the "Casull" and began reloading it. The task was anything but easy because he had to slide each bullet into place just so with his right hand while his left one held it steady. It took him almost a full minute, a pathetic reload time, if he hadn't had some good cover he would have been dead. Melkore and the other's were falling back away from the front door.

Master had not yet even drawn his blade, though he viewed the entire fight with

complete confidence. "We need a distraction. If we have that, we can get to the Eagle

and take off." Distraction? Vincent could do that and still make it onto the plane as it

took off.

"I'll handle it Master!" Vincent reloaded Quicksilver (his pistol) and then closed

his eyes as he focused on splitting his body into many. His Master needed a distraction,

Shinra wouldn't forget this in a long time. Thankfully it was late enough that the sun was

gone, thus making the manifestation of Vincent's power simpler. That was good because

Vincent hadn't done anything like this in his life before.

Okay, to be fair he had done something like this before but that had been instinct,

this time he needed to do it while retaining control. He felt his body split into many

entities and he felt himself swarming into the air. He distinctly heard Melkore utter a string of obscenities in surprise at what he saw happening. His Master of course just watched in slight respect and uttered a few words appropriate in response to Melkore's. "What do you expect, he's a vampire."

The window directly in front of where Vincent had been sitting had already been shattered by many bullets, thus leaving plenty of room for Vincent to exit through. Many guards and SOLDIERS were surprised by the swarm of bats which was suddenly leaving

Melkore's house. If they were surprised by bats, Vincent couldn't wait until they saw what would come next.

The car that Rufus must have come in would make a fine place to bring himself back together. As he did so, people suddenly began to pay much more attention to him. It wasn't fair for them to do anything else. Vincent had left the house in the shape of a swarm of bats, and now a swarm of bats was coming together in the shape of a human before their eyes. That, and Vincent was gripping a gun in either hand, which he instantly started using.

It didn't matter who his target was. Random people in Shinra uniforms, some who were busy screaming their heads off, others who were vainly trying to draw a bead on him. Vincent emptied his first few shots into the heads of his foes before they started shooting back. The first few rounds were nothing to Vincent, they hit him and left his body, as if they had missed, allowing Vincent to continue to fire with executioner style precision. But then some with glowing eyes fired at Vincent. He hissed with pain; the wounds hurt the way nothing had since before he'd died.

Vincent fell off the car, temporarily gaining some blessed shelter. What had done that to him? What kind of weaponry could do that to him? He was a vampire, bullets shouldn't have been able to do this to him! He holstered his guns, and ran a hand along his chest. The bullet left a green ring around the wound, he slowly ran his hand across it. As he did so, he suddenly heard voices screaming in his head. "Come with us, you belong to us! Return to us!"

Vincent looked at the green ring, and silently swore, mako. They actually had mako bullets, damn it. He couldn't let himself die this easily, even if he had been shot with concentrated Lifestream! His Master needed him! Vincent drew the Casull with his claw and opened it. Six spent rounds shot out and Vincent reached into a his pocket for more bullets.

He quickly grasped a single bullet, and loaded it into the gun. He spun the chamber and closed it before pushing the hammer back. He looked up and saw a man with an unsteady hand holding a gun at him. "PUT YOUR HANDS UP OR ELSE!" It was not a command, it was a plea.

This wasn't the man who had shot him with mako bullets, but he would have to do for now. In one fluid motion Vincent was off the ground and his right hand easily ripped the collar of the man's uniform down and spun him around at the same time. That gave Vincent's teeth a clear shot at the back of the man's neck. He bit down with a vengeance and drank, this fool wasn't a virgin, but his blood would do for now. Vincent had to go find who had shot him.

------------------------

"Does that qualify as a distraction?" Sephiroth didn't need to hear what Melkore's response was. He turned his attention to the back of the house, and finally drew Masamune into his hands. "Niro, Alex, you two hit them right after I do. Mirri, ready to attack?" Mirri crouched underneath a window that had already been shot out. A new set of blades were already loaded into her gloves and she smiled at Sephiroth even as she crouched low to the floor.

"Okay, Sephiroth, you go out the door, I'll go out the window." Niro holstered his pistol and in the blink of an eye he transformed into his panther form. Alex, who had been lying on the floor, sprang to life. He muttered something so low that Sephiroth barely heard it, something along the lines of "about time" and started transforming from human to wolf.

Melkore watched both events in wordless surprise, before he finally spoke to the one person who he must have felt he could trust. "Mirri, I'm currently turning my house into the Alamo, fighting alongside General Sephiroth. Those things all well and good, but I just watched one guy turn into a cat and the other a dog. Could you please put my life in perspective?"

/Dog? Dog? DOG? Do I look like a dog to you? You're asking to discover what waits beyond this life, Glasswalker!\ Mirri, as usual, showed more amusement then compassion. "Melkore, it's not a good idea to call the werewolf a dog. Alex is a touch sensitive about it, same way Shinra is a touch sensitive about us blowing up their reactors."

Melkore paused, looked like he wanted to stroke some strings on his guitar but didn't want to waste ammo. "Oh, okay, so he's a lycanthrope. So long as he doesn't bury bones in my yard, I don't care. So what's the panther?" Sephiroth didn't have time for this, he could hear gunfire far too loudly. "Niro is a Shapeshifter, now Melkore, shut up. Mirri, let's roll!"

Mirri smiled, and Sephiroth needed only one smooth cut to take the door off its hinges. It fell backwards as Sephiroth strode across the door, and he instantly leapt for the cover he already knew existed. He leapt for the Eagle, and before the guards were halfway into their clips they stopped shooting.

He landed on the planes cockpit, and then in a smooth roll he slid across, the plane's wing and landed on the ground right in front of a guard. Then it was a contest between which was faster, Sephiroth's blade or the guard's gun. It wasn't that great a contest.

The man fell backwards, sliced in half and most of the other guards still didn't know where Sephiroth was. Almost to the tick that Sephiroth killed the guard, Mirri leapt through the window with a storm of blades leaving her gloves.

Niro and Alex followed suit, and as Sephiroth was claiming his second guard, those two took their first guards each. Before Sephiroth could take his third guard, he discovered that there weren't any left to deal with. "Melkore, the plane is ready!"

Melkore looked at the wreckage of his door, as he walked over it. "You are so going to pay for that General!"

Sephiroth didn't have time to respond to Melkore with a verbal comment after that. "**We're leaving**." Sephiroth didn't shout, he didn't have to; when he spoke, people listened, even if they shouldn't be able to hear him. Aeris exited the house with her staff strapped across her back like Sephiroth kept Masamune.

A moment later, James decided that the upstairs room he had been posted in didn't have enough windows. Granted, you couldn't exactly call it a window as he made it in the ceiling. Either way Melkore's house would have a much higher heating bill if he ever occupied it again.

The roof suddenly slid right off of Melkore's house, and right onto his lawn, crushing President Shinra's car, not to mention a few Shinra guards.

After James made his unique renovation he exited through it, slid down what was left of the roof, and landed perfectly on the tail of the plane. Melkore stopped attempting to start the plane and turned around to face him. "JAMES YOU ARE GOING TO PAY

FOR THAT TOO!"

James was too busy holding onto the yet unmoving plane to care what Melkore said. Niro transformed into something small and entered the cockpit with Melkore. Alex shifted back to his human form, and stared at the plane thoroughly unable to understand it. "Here Alex, try these!"

Mirri was currently lying flat on the plane with a blade from each of her gloves in the plane. She tossed Alex a pair of blades and he drove them into the plane, making a pair of improvised handholds. Melkore didn't even look up from the plane's control panel this time. "YOU TWO ARE GOING TO PAY FOR THE REPAIRS!"

Sephiroth grabbed Aeris around the waist with one hand (eliciting a reflexive, indignant squeak) and grabbed onto the plane with the other, muttering something about "lousy seating arrangements".

With one more jerk Melkore finally got the planes engines to come to life. A pair

of propellers started to turn, and he adjusted the thing so that it faced the landing strip he

had built. Sephiroth decided that it was time for another use of the Voice. "**Vincent, we're leaving. Now.**"

Nothing happened at first, but after a minute, as Melkore began to take off

Sephiroth saw it. A swarm of solid black heading for them as the plane lifted off into the

air. It took the shape of Vincent Valentine holding onto the plane creating his own

handhold on the plane with his claw. Over the noise of the plane's engine, even Sephiroth couldn't hear what Melkore said, but he could guess. "VAMPIRE, IF WE SURVIVE YOU'RE GONNA PAY FOR THAT ALSO!"

As the plane began to gain altitude he turned it around, and did one last fly over his house. Sadly, whatever previous orders the Shinra troopers had to not harm the Eagle, they were disregarding them now. Gunfire filled the air around them. James was the worst off for the situation, because he was holding onto the tail. The same tail that happened to be punctured by several Shinra rounds. James rapidly moved back and forth without going anywhere, and somehow managed to avoid getting any new holes added to his person.

Though the tail was not the only part of the plane that was hit, it did get the worst. As the plane left the Shinra troops behind, it began to move erratically up and down, and Melkore pushed back the cockpit so everyone could hear his diagnosis. His first words were a very long series of expletives followed by "SHINRA, YOU'RE GONNA PAY FOR THAT ON TOP OF EVERYTHING ELSE!"

Once that had been said, he went onto to a more fact laden explanation. "We've lost the tail! I can't control the altitude! We're gonna have to crash land, just hope it's over water and not land!" Sephiroth held onto the plane for all he was worth and held onto Aeris for all she was. He was not about to let her die so easily! 'Her'? Where did 'her' come from? Sephiroth was momentarily disconcerted, before deciding that it was a simple slip of thought. She was one of his soldiers, that's all, and he never lost a soldier if he could help it.

End Chapter 16

OWAN: Suuure she is. And so, we see a sampling of Sephiroth's abilities, a glimpse of things to come, and the entrance of a new character, loosely based on the Firecat's brother. Please review, this was a long chapter and took a LOT of work.

FN 3: For those who may not have noticed, the conversation Vincent had with James' blood was loosely based on the Excel Saga theme song. We'll release a 'deleted scenes' chapter at some point, where you guys can see the full version of the joke. Or, if you request it, we can email it to you(requests via comment only, please)


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

You're fighting for my love.

Vincent saw death coming for him. It was ironic but the first time it had taken its time creeping up on him as various sadistic experiments slowly drained the life from his body. Now filled with the blood of those he had killed, his second death came up on him all too fast.

There was a single sound, the tearing of metal to herald his prepared arrival in the pits of hell. As the Eagle crashed into the water, the handhold (or claw hold) Vincent had on the plane suddenly put too much pressure on it. The piece of the plane he held onto for dear unlife came loose, and Vincent was thrown forward.

If they had been on land regardless of how hard the impact would have been, he would have survived it, but they weren't. They were over water, and that meant Vincent had no chance of surviving what came next. He was thrown forward past the cockpit, and into the water.

He didn't bother trying to tread water or swim, his claw made a very effective deadweight to drag him to his final resting place. He didn't need to breath, but it wasn't suffocation that would get him. No it would be the crushing pressure at the bottom of the ocean that would finally do him in.

While he was reflecting on his fate to come, he suddenly realized that he wasn't sinking any more. His eyes could easily pierce darkness but underwater his vision was still distorted. He could barely see the cause of his sudden loss of downward momentum, strands of white were wrapped around his claw.

They must have gotten there while Vincent was still above water and they anchored him to the world of the living as securely as his claw anchored him to the world below. In a moment Vincent discovered that perhaps the strands of white were not quite as much of perfect blessing as they looked.

This was because as Vincent looked up at the world he would probably never see again, he could see James Firecat valiantly struggling against the pull of his own body, which he could now see was connected to Vincent's by white wires. It was a valiant struggle, but like most such struggles, it was completely useless.

James didn't posses near enough strength to even manage to keep his own body from joining Vincent's let alone save Vincent. Vincent sank a few more inches watching with vague irritation this unplanned roadblock on his final trip to the afterlife. James was drawing closer and closer to the edge of the plane; soon he would join Vincent in the water. At that point James would probably cut his losses and let Vincent sink.

Just as James' feet lost contact with the plane, he was stopped from splashing into the water. A white-gloved hand shot out and grabbed hold of James' tail, leaving James trapped between the air and water. For a while the three of them stayed like that, but then Vincent felt a sudden jerk as a fourth person joined the line.

James, who should have been in mind-bending pain, smiled as the entire bizarre procession took one step backwards, hauling him closer to the plane. Again and again steps were taken until James was finally back on his feet. From there it was only a matter of time until the three people pulling against Vincent's weight finally managed to pull a very wet, yet grateful vampire from the ocean.

James finally undid the white wires, which vanished back into his gloves. Alex slapped James on the back in what would have been a gesture of friendship except that it floored the Firecat. Judging from Alex's gratified expression, that had been his intent in the first place. "Not bad for a Ragabash. It only took half of the pack to get you out of the problem you created that time."

On the ground, clearly hoping that his spine was still arranged in the direction that it naturally favored, James still smiled. "Well a guy does what he has to do!" Master, who had up to this point been uninvolved with the entire affair, suddenly took part in it. "James, why did you do that?"

James shrugged as if the reasons for his actions should be blindly obvious. "Simple, everyone knows that vampires can't cross running water except at the flow or slack of the tide. As right now it didn't look like either, nothing good could come from Vincent trying swim, right?" Before anyone else could act Melkore threw himself into the debacle with reckless abandon.

He hoisted himself out of the cockpit and practically jumped to Vincent's side and grabbed his claw. "What in the name of God is this fing thing made from?" Vincent easily removed his claw from Melkore's grasp and took a moment to examine his reflection in it, he was in his 20's again. "I don't know, why?"

Melkore was practically salivating as he tried once again to grab the claw that Vincent jerked away from him. "James is using monofilament wires. That's a fancy way of saying they're about as many molecules wide as the new president has IQ points above a chocobo. With a proper grip, even Shinra battle mech armor can't stand up to them. James was pulling on those wires for all he was worth against your claw for at least a minute, and it isn't even scratched. If that had been your right hand he wrapped those wires around it would have come off at the wrist."

Vincent looked at his claw, and then with irritation at Melkore. "I don't know what it's made from and it doesn't matter." Mirri had spent a moment catching her breath and was now back in the conversation. "Melkore, put your idea factory to some good use and work on something useful. We're currently out in the middle the ocean, if we don't do something we'll either die of thirst or starvation."

"What do you mean 'we' mammals?" With Melkore out of the cockpit Niro had plenty of room to shift into his human form and climb out of the cockpit as well. The way he looked at the water was the exact opposite of how Vincent looked at it. Vincent glared down at the water which, unlike manmade surfaces, refused to show his reflection and knew that he glimpsed the pits of hell.

Niro was currently looking down at the thing as if he was tempted to dive right in. Vincent wondered how Shapeshifter blood would taste, it was a shame that Niro's black coat did a good job of covering his neck. "You don't have any fish big enough to ride on, or strong enough to pull this thing do you Niro?" Blind, halfwit hope, thy name is Firecat.

"Sorry James, but I could bring you guys back an olive branch from whichever way land is." Alex carefully dipped a hand into the water, and then slowly let it drain out of his hand. "We don't need that in the least Shapeshifter, land is that way."

Alex struck a pose like a statue pointing forward with complete and total confidence.

It was at this point, while everyone else was busy looking at the water that somebody acted decisively. The entire plane shuddered as the engine kicked itself to life. Instantly everyone spun around, Aeris was sitting in the cockpit and grinning. "The engine still works, why can't we use the plane like a boat?" There was a very long pause. "Why didn't I think of that?"

There was a very long pause as everyone excepted James looked pointedly away to avoid answering Melkore's question. James, of course, spoke when no words were needed. "Well we were all so busy looking at the water and trying to think about fancy solutions that none of us besides Aeris thought about the fact that the plane still worked." Aeris willingly moved aside and let Melkore "drive" while Alex pointed the way.

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James' ears got him into more trouble then the rest of his body combined. His ears also did help him get out of more trouble then the rest of his body combined.

Okay that might not be completely accurate, considering his feet and legs often had something to do with him getting out of trouble also. But then, to help level that playing field out, his ears also help him find things out. The Eagle had been "parked" near Cosmo Canyon and the rest of the group had disembarked. Most of the group had headed off to the canyon to gather various things they would need for the journey. Food, compass, another map to check Seph's against, and some more ammo.

James had all the "ammo" he would ever need for his gloves. He had been tempted to head out to the canyon just because it was a nice place to spend time. But in the end he had decided that someone needed to keep track of the Eagle just to make sure it didn't float away or something. Thus he and Vincent were plane, or boat watching. James had called the cockpit along with the second watch, and those two things added together well.

It was somewhat difficult, but he managed to cram his entire body semicomfortably into the cockpit with his head against the seat. He had then gone on to grab a quick catnap that lasted slightly longer then he planned. The cockpit was closed, but after all the damage the plane had suffered that didn't make it as airtight or soundproof as it used to be.

"What is so important that you needed to see me Vincent?" James' ears twitched to life at those words, and his eyes weren't far behind. He shut down the sense that he was able to fully controlled, and had to do something about his ears. He twisted slightly around, and kicked at his ears, it was a gesture he had seen Alex use a few times.

Sadly the action seemed more suited to a removing fleas then stopping you from hearing. "Master, I need to ask you a few things, and fill in a few blanks in my knowledge of the world." James could kick the cockpit open, that would be the best way to get attention, but then the two would stop the conversation. Whatever it was, the two of them clearly didn't have much free time. It wouldn't be nice of James to mess it up for them. "Fine, go ahead and ask Vincent."

James knew for a fact that it had to be Sephiroth from the start of the conversation, but the contextual clues were nice, too. "Master, how frequent is it for people to have mako and Jenova injections?" That was a good question, and General Sephiroth would really be the person to ask.

"It's hard to say, it varies from place to place. SOLDIER is made up exclusively of people with mako and Jenova injections. At this point, almost all of Shinra's 'real' army is made up of SOLDIERS. Its army, however is nowhere near the size of the number of people they've employed. They also have large number of guards for various duties. There are three types of SOLDIERS.

Third class SOLDIERS aren't much better then ordinary humans, except that they have much more training then ordinary guards. Second class SOLDIERS are more heavily enhanced, and even more heavily trained. First class SOLDIERS are the most dangerous, though my Seraphim were still a cut above most of them. Why do you ask?"

"It's about her, master." Her? Man, why did Vincent have to have such a love of pronouns? At least with Alex there was an easy-to-follow code, even if he never called people by their names. Okay, James could sort this out. She was probably a member of he group, which meant either Aeris or Mirri. "What about her?" Aww man, Sephiroth probably knew who Vincent was talking about one way or another, but that left James without a clue.

Okay he had a clue, it was a 50-50 shot, okay call it 75-25. It was probably Aeris, right? "Master, what is she doing traveling with us?" Yeah, okay now it was probably 90-10. But then Aeris was with the group because she wanted to be with the group; it was as simple as that, right?

"Hell if I know. I met her by complete chance, saved her life, and watched the rest of the group do the same ever since." It was now 100-0 they were talking about Aeris. "It is dangerous for someone like her to be traveling with people like us, master." If the odd got over 100-0, like 110 to negative ten, then that was what the odds were. "Do you think I need you to tell me that? Every time we go into battle, she's the one that we have to protect. She believes in the cause, though, and she's not willing to let a little thing like combat incompetence keep her from seeing it through."

"So she doesn't know the danger?" "I think she's starting to get an idea for the danger. However, at the moment she's too deep in with us to let her go on her own. Even if we could convince her to stay in some place like the canyon, it wouldn't be safe. Shinra isn't just after her for us, they're after her for her. She's a half Cetra."

This announcement was followed by an empty laugh from Sephiroth. "Do you even realize what that means Vincent?" If Sephiroth laughing sounded odd, Vincent laughing sounded even weirder, it was all hollow and dark. "I know what a Cetra is. I know far more then most people assume I know." Then Sephiroth asked a question that made James want to press his head up against the cockpit to hear what came next.

"Vincent, how old are you?" Each and every moment that passed made James' heart beat faster. This was without a doubt the kind of question that James knew would go onto getting your ordinary cat killed. Thankfully James was half human, or to be closer to the truth, three fourth's human, but it took all three of those fourths to hold back his cat side, because he couldn't wait to hear the answer. The only possible question that James would rather hear answered then that one was exactly how old Alex was.

Okay there were other questions, but this one was high up there in his top ten, at least five. "Master, look me in the eyes and tell me how old I am, for I do not know, myself." James' ears instantly drooped in dejection, an answer like that was even more final then what you got when you asked Alex for an answer to the question of how old he was. "Vincent, why do you care about her?" James' ears instantly shot up again; something good was coming now.

"To be honest Master, she reminds me of someone I once knew." "Did she die?" "Yes." "How wonderful, even vampire can hold onto human emotion." "Not for myself, but look into my eyes, which of us looks older right now?" "We look the same." "Exactly, but you know I am older. I fear that she will be for you, the same pain I have. I hold no more hope for myself, only for others. I am less then a vampire, just a ghost of the past, brining whispered warnings in the dark."

"I am a General at war, I will take any advice you have to offer." "Hold her tight, hold her very tight. Protect, shelter, and care for her. Let her know that she has those who care about her." "You make it sound like I love her, she's the same as any number of civilian specialists I've guarded over the years." "Your heartbeat tells a different story Master."

"Heartbeats are dictated by chemical releases, not rational thought." "The same could be said of love Master." "The same could be said of lust, love takes more then base animal attraction." "Yes, but base animal attraction makes a wonderful foundation for love." "You speak with experience?" "Beyond a doubt."

"I am not you, I am not destined to do the same things you have." "I can only pray to that Master." "Mixing romance and warfare is not a good way to do things." "Sadly, we do not often have the freedom to make those choices."

James tried (and manifestly failed) to keep his entire body still, though he did a decent job of slowing down his breathing. Finally Sephiroth apparently gave in. "You may have a point. I'll have to think on this, but we both know that love is no victory march." "No master… it's a cold, broken halleluiah." "Amen."

After that James only heard the sound of Sephiroth's boots on the ground as he walked away. To be fair it wasn't that much of a sound, James considered himself the master of making as much noise as a cat, but Sephiroth wasn't bad. Also to be fair, Seph was wearing boots while James had sneakers, which were more suited for ease of movement and silence. He decided not to dwell on the last exchange between Seph and Vince, trying to sort out conversations like that always made his brain hurt. Once even James couldn't pick up Sephiroth's steps any more, he started to wonder about exactly what time it was. If it was close to the start of his shift then he could climb out of the cockpit without arousing too much suspicion.

But if it wasn't, then he couldn't. In the end he was saved by Melkore's ingenuity, something he had been saved by a lot of times, considering at it was the same force responsible for his genetic code and thus abilities. Melkore had thought far enough ahead to build a clock into the Eagle's control panel, and unlike the compass, it hadn't been damaged in the crash and gunfire. Sadly, it wasn't one of those digital clocks James was used to. It took him a moment to decipher how to understand the three rotating hands. Once he had it down it was simple though, and a little study helped him discover the meaning of each hand.

At first he thought that the longest hand was hours, because hours were the longest measurement of time a clock showed. As it turned out the longest hand was minutes, or at least he judged that from how long it took for it to move. With the longest hands as minutes, it was only about five minutes from his shift. This was a good thing because if that hand was hours he had gone to sleep and woken up before he went to sleep. That possibility was just fraught with all kinds of time paradoxes and before James knew it he would have erased himself from existence.

Once he was totally sure of about what time it was, he kicked open the cockpit and climbed out. "Hey Vincent!" Be calm, don't reveal anything through body language, don't reveal that your not revealing anything through body language... be casual. "Yes James?" Subterfuge wasn't James' strong suit, but sometimes you could hide stuff just by being yourself, that and bring the conversation in a different direction. "Since, well I'm not going to say that you aren't gonna grab some z's, but aren't vampire's nocturnal? Anyways, since your probably not going to get any sleep, why don't you spend some time teaching me?"

James' strategy worked on both counts. It got Vincent onto the subject he wanted and got Vincent so shocked that he wasn't going to be paying close attention to James. "Teach you what?" That one was obvious to James, and always had been. "How you do the stuff you do. You know, turning into bats and shadows." Vincent looked like he might be sick for a moment, and then spoke with a voice that rivaled Sephiroth's for pure 'don't-argue-with-me'-ness. "You're a human. I do the things I do because I'm a vampire. It would be like trying to teach a cat to walk on its hind legs."

That was an ironic turn of the phrase for Vincent, considering who he was talking to. James removed his hat and took a moment to stroke his ears as he spoke. "I'm not human. Besides, I've talked with Alex about this kind of thing, because he knows everything about werebeasts and vampires. He told me that there is a very critical division between werewolves and werecats. I'm assuming that he was referring to me when he said wereacts, though he never bothered to clarify the term. Garou like Alex learn how to do the things they do by talking with spirits, and communing with the planet. Werecats can learn how to do something just by watching somebody else do something. He taught me a few tricks, and promised to teach me how to shift when he gets around to doing the same with Aeris. Anyway, if I can learn to do the stuff he does, why can't I learn to do the stuff you do?"

Then James played his trump card with a smoothness and grace that would have done Mirri proud. "Besides, you owe me one for fishing you out of the drink." There was a long pause, and James just smiled at Vincent without looking away or breaking his grin for the entire length of it. Optimism would prove victorious were experience and common sense dare not tread. "You realize that you'll look like an idiot as a corporeal being trying to turn your body into a swarm or bats, or move through a solid object, right?"

Mirri had taught James many important lessons, one of them was that when you hit a rhetorical question, the best thing to do was a statement of your beliefs. "Dance like noone is watching, work like you don't need the money, and love like you've never been hurt."

FN: For reference to Demon Surfer's line in review, let's do a little quick play by play analysis of who is who.

Melkore Morningstar--- Cid Highwind

Vincent Valentine--- Vincent Valentine

Aeris---- Aeris

Niro Rose--- Cait Sith

Alexander Diamondclaw --- Nanaki/Red XIII

That's all nice an easy

And now for the complicated part

Sephiroth-- Clouds Mental problems and Cloud's group leadership status.

Mirri -- Barret's Corel heritage with alterations. Tifa's uh… figure?

James-- Cloud's status as the main character of the story, at least to the extent that Marty is the main character in the Back to the Future movies.

My point being, that the three above shift things back and forth slightly when it comes to having traits from FF7 characters, and it's hard to solidly nail that much down. On the subject of Vincent, in one of the oldest sayings, "He just wants somebody to love" and I think I do a decent job writing his personality in this situation. As you notice he isn't so much mindless depression, as a very desperate man holding onto a life preserver. With all that said, onto the next chapter, which is shorter than the last few, but it's cut short for cinematic reasons.

Also, due to a mistake in my checking I forgot to mention that James' gloves also belong to Kohta Hirano.

**OWAN: Also, in response to that same query, the majority of the feats of raw strength have been performed by Sephiroth, so you could assign that Barret aspect to him as well. Also, Jeff Buckley is awesome.**


	18. Chapter 18

Twilight perfection

Chapter 18: I had visions, I was in them, I was looking into the mirror, to see a little bit clearer, the rottenness and evil in me.

FN: I should warn you, as soon as you step into this chapter, it will not stop. That and the Firecat note at the end of the last chapter was a little misleading. Alex translated a small part that I should have deleted to the best of his ability. To be frank, the reason I wrote Twilight Perfection was because I just couldn't cut writing a normal FF7 fic at the moment I wrote it (I've got a "Semi regular" piece in the works now that is shaping up well) because I didn't quite have a handle on all the main characters. I can write Cloud, but as you'll discover in whatever me and Alex decided to call our Phantom of the Opera FF7 crossover, both he and I are fond of Cloud bashing. For him its a more personal thing as a fan of Sephiroth, for me, I feel that it's sort of weird that we have Cloud build up into this romance with Aeris, she gets killed, and before the game is over, Cloud is scoring (what do you think they were doing on that island the night before North Crater?) with Tifa, who he hadn't spent that much time building up an actual relationship with. Also, to be fair, I never got a good handle on Tifa's character, I don't enjoy bashing her the way I do Cloud, but probably because I never played her in my party (I've played through the game a few times, but I prefer Vincent and Nanaki, as you can probably guess) so I didn't see that much of her dialogue, and I never quite got what made her stand out in the group, yes she was out to get personal vengeance on Sephiroth, but so was Cloud. Anyways, as to the last note, let me take a moment to put on my magicians hat and tell you how I do my tricks. For those you who haven't read my blog and LJ (you should) the character of Mirri Catwarrior is based off of my (and James who is the personification of me in the story, though I don't think I get carried away with this) a composition of pieces, that come together based on what I find attractive. As you may have noticed, I'm not the most passionate man in the world, but the one thing I know for sure is that strong women turn me on. Mirri is a composite of a cat I own of the same name who must kept inside because of how vicious she is, and several other noteworthy female figures from more animes than I could name, and the character of Honor Harrington from the works of David Weber, who's series (it starts with On Basilisk Station) you should read if you get the chance. Thus in my mind, Mirri has always had a kind of animal sexuality about her, or in my minds eye she usually wears some combination of clothes that completely cover her body, and thus shows of her sexuality through the what she does, and what she says. For those of you who are unable to grasp my concept from that alone, I'll barrow a line from Maskerade by Terry Pratchett, the line is written about a male cat named Greebo (who if he was real probably would have been the father of Mirri (the cat who we own)) who turns into a human being. "Greebo fully clothed still managed to communicate the nakedness beneath. The insouciant mustache, the long sideburns and tousled black hair combined with the well-developed muscles to give the impression of the more louche kind of buccaneer or a romantic poet who'd given up on the opium and tried red meat instead. He had a scar running across his face, and a black patch now where it crossed the eye. When he smiled, he exuded an easy air of undistilled, excitingly dangerous lasciviousness. He could swagger while asleep. Greebo could, in fact, commit sexual harassment simply by sitting very quietly in the next room." If there was a female version of the lines above, it would be how I would describe Mirri (The character in this story and my LJ and blog) for sure. Now that all that is said, leave your common sense by the door, you won't need it for this chapter.

**OWAN: I don't just bash Cloud because I'm a Sephiroth fan. I also find him to be staggeringly insipid, as well as only marginally competent. The bastard's just lucky as all hell(kind of like James, actually, but James knows he's barely competent, not to mention being far more pleasant and intelligent than Chocobo Brain over there gestures to a fencing dummy that's missing an arm and has a lot of holes in it**

The group set out again at sunrise. Laying around on op of the Eagle or holding onto it, the group passed the time needed to take the Eagle from Cosmo Canyon to the island that the Temple of the Ancients should be on. By the time they docked and tied up the Eagle the sun was already starting to set in the sky.

But for the enhanced members of the group, dark proved no true reason to simply set up camp, they had laid around on the Eagle all day and were ready to go. So Sephiroth had gone with the majority consensus and the group struck out for the temple. It wasn't hard to find, the thing towered over anything else on the island.

Strange marks were etched on the steps leading up to it, and Alex was the only person who could read them since they were in Cetra. "Know that those who partake from the corruption of Jenova and enter this temple will be struck down by their own daemons." Alex didn't care to make his pack members aware of this fact, they would experience it first hand soon enough.

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There was a bright flash of light, and then James suddenly found himself alone. Not only was he alone, but he was nowhere near where he had just been. He wasn't even anywhere he had been before.

He was standing in the middle of nothing. The only thing that he could see was this weird silvery-gray mist that shifted everywhere. He walked forward for a bit, but he didn't find anything, it was hard to even tell where he was going, or if he had even gone some place. Everything looked the same. "Hey!"

James spun around, he didn't care who it was, anybody was far better then nobody. He spun around and came face to face with a guy who looked a lot like him. He was shorter then James by about a foot, though this was probably because he looked like he was also a few years younger than James.

He was wearing a rather formal brown shirt with short sleeves and buttons, along with brown shorts. He had electric yellow eyes, and ears that looked just like James', except in brown. With those facts in mind, James was hopelessly captivated with the fact that whoever this was regardless of how much he looked like him, (at least round the ears) he was wearing a tie.

James had never quite been able to figure out ties, they were even worse than buttons for him. At least buttons would help keep his jacket shut if he cared to use them, ties were totally bewildering to James, their function completely eluded him. Once he finally managed to get over the guy's tie, he noticed one other odd thing. He was wearing an armband that had some kind of symbol James couldn't understand, it looked like a bunch of zig zag lines, well whatever.

"So who are you?" The guy gestured with his right hand (he had white gloves, which all things considered looked very weird with short sleeves) out towards the gray mist. "My name is Schrodinger, and here is, well, here." James paused, took off his hat, revealing his cat ears, and took a moment to scratch his left ear with his left hand. "Okay then, if here is here, what am I doing here, and what are you doing here?"

As Schrodinger spoke the gray mist seemed to start solidifying into a room with iron walls. "Don't even bother asking why I'm here, I'm everywhere. You're here because you just walked into a trap. This temple has precautions designed to keep Jenova beings out. But, things hit a slight snag where you're concerned. You see the spell is designed to draw power from hate, fear, anger, you know, all those emotions you never feel?"

James could follow Schrodinger so far. "So, I'm in some kind of magical prison?" The grey mist continued to give way to the metallic room. "Yeah, if you want to think about it that way. The most exact way of saying it is that you're in the box. You see the spell is designed to put you in a prison of your own mind. Sadly building a prison out of your mind is like making a bungee cord out of epoxy, it just doesn't work."

James was actually able to get most of the drift without too much trouble. "An open mind is a fortress with the portcullis up, drawbridge down, and battlements undefended, right? I don't have any doors to lock to keep people out or in." As the room began to come into focus a third figure also began to take shape.

"Yeah, more or less. So as things are more or less coming apart at the seams, I got called in. So all you have to do to get out, is beat this guy." It was at this point that the third figure finally took visible shape. He was tall, very tall, it looked like he was even taller then Sephiroth. A single piercing blue eye glared out at James from beneath a gray hat tilted over the other eye.

He wore a gray outfit that covered, his entire body, and had tail coats that drifted back and forth like Sephiroth's in the wind. At one hip he had a holstered one handed automatic gun, and a sword at the other. The little of his hair that James could see was a bright blond that matched Schrodinger's hair color.

"He's, well I couldn't say a manifestation of your fears/hatred, but an empowered manifestation of everything you dislike. The good news, is that since neither of us are suppose to be here, and the laws of quantum mechanics are currently being bent into a pretzel, if you win I'll teach you a few things. Some free advice though, Captain's got something of an axe to grind against guys who fight with wires, goes back over half century now, have fun!"

James took another moment to examine "The Captain" and when he looked back Schrodinger had vanished. James would guess that it was back into the grey mist except that there wasn't any grey mist left now. Nor where there any walls.

Instead they were standing on, something, with the air blasting James so hard that his hat blew right off his head (James having returned it to its normal place) and instantly it vanished from view. Cursing his rotten luck, James returned his attention to the Captain. The man was slowly advancing towards James, looking like he wasn't even tempted to go for either of his weapons. This couldn't be too hard, could it?

It was just one guy, and his eyes weren't glowing with mako enhancement, James should be able to take him with one hand, in fact he could do it fighting right handed! To prove that particular hypothesis, James pressed down on his right gloves releasing the wire from the glove into his hands. Then it was a simple move to toss a coil of wire out at the man.

James could see how fast the Captain moved, but that didn't make what happened next any less spectacular. Captain reached out, grabbed the wire as it sailed towards him, and held on. A trickle of blood poured down his hand as he held onto the wire, but other then that he seemed perfectly at ease with doing what Melkore said was impossible. Of course there might be some kind of special layering in his gloves, but that was a remote possibility at best.

James got his second unplanned surprise when the Captain gave a sharp yank on the wires, which were still attached to James via his gloves. The Captain yanked the wires so hard that James lost his footing on whatever he was standing on, and went flying straight towards his foe, who was waiting with opens arms. Or to be exact, he looked more then ready to get a good throttling grip on James' neck with his other hand.

To be fair, it was hard to say the man "looked" like anything, his eyes and body language said nothing, they just were. So in this case James was guessing what the man's intention would be. Thankfully, he managed to avoid the Captain's grasp by ducking between his long legs. He went under the Captain's legs, and tried to rip him apart with a vertical yank up on the wires that connected them.

Sadly the Captain had a grip like a steel vice and the wires never left his hands. Failing to have grabbed James once, he pulled yet again, and once more James went flying across whatever he was standing on. This time, he failed to land on his feet. He also failed to land on his side, or his back. Really, the only thing he didn't fail at was a face plant. It was a spectacular one, if James had been slammed like that into concrete he probably would have bounced off it with a plethora of broken body parts.

As it was, he still bounced, but found it a much more welcome sensation as his skull wasn't damaged. On the rebound he managed to land on his feet facing the Captain, though he was still connected to him by wires. Okay, James had another glove full of wires, why not use them? But how? Captain would just catch them again if he threw them at him. Wait a moment, James had an idea!

Sadly he had this idea while he was currently sailing through the air because his wires had been given yet another yank. But if the ground was so forgiving..? Rather then try to go under the Captain, this time James went down to go over him! All he had to do was throw himself against the ground, then use the bounces momentum to lift him over the Captain!

It worked perfectly, and then James implemented the second part of the plan. James released the wires from his left hand, and then threw them with complete concentration. The wires from his left hand sliced apart the wires from his right hand that bound him to the Captain. The Captain tossed aside the cut wires and turned to face James.

The two locked gazes with each other again at this point. The Captain still showing absolute nothing, man this guy wasn't even alive! He was like, well he kind of reminded James of those stories about golems. Magical beings made from rock, or metal, melded together in human shape. That would certainly explain why this guy was barely even bleeding when he grabbed the wires and held onto them. So how did you beat a golem? He seemed to stand perfectly still, but he had grabbed James' wires, proving that he race lightning.

James thought for the moment as the Captain slowly drew closer to James with "murder in his eyes" except James could only see one eye and it was glassily blank. Maybe it was only his hands that could move at such lightning speed, that would without a doubt give James an edge in mobility.

Sadly James had to abandon this theory when the Captain suddenly covered the distance between them between them in the blink of an eye, before he slammed a booted foot into James' misdirection. James was thrown backwards onto the ground, air knocked right out of his lungs.

It was sort of appropriate when James had to think about it as he tried to breath again.. The Captain was the perfect study in solid motion. He would stand perfectly still except for lightning quick motions, but he clearly didn't follow through with his blows. Which meant what exactly? Well James was the perfect study in fluid motion, there was only one thing for it.

He rolled to the side, got his breath and footing back, and started to act. He danced around Captain, first left, then right. He dashed back and forth keeping the Captain at several arms distance as he circled him constantly. Granted James wasn't exactly sure what he was hoping to accomplish. James was getting far more dizzy then his opponent, (if he was even capable of being dizzy) but at least for the moment it was his move.

Sadly, he couldn't think of anything to do with it, the exact answer of how to kill a golem was still eluding him as much as he was eluding the Captain. Suddenly in the blink of an eye James had his answer completely by accident. He danced a little to close to the edge of the, well whatever they were standing on. Looking down he could see the lights of a city, a very long way down. Well that explained how to beat the Captain.

James just stood there, and waited for the Captain to come to him. With his entire body prepared for action, he waited. The Captain rushed forward, James jumped over him, and then James delivered his own kick. It was a snap kick while James had yet to land, and James instantly regretted it.

It was like kicking a brick wall, he was surprised his foot didn't hurt more afterwards. However, regardless of what the Captain was made of (James was starting to guess scrap metal welded together with touches of superglue) the blow still transferred a good amount of momentum.

Regardless of his toughness(the man could play Bloody Knuckles with Sephiroth, quite likely), the man's density and mass were apparently still normal, so the equation James had calculated for conservation of energy held true. The Captain went over the edge of what they were standing on. Before he could fall far however a strand of wire shot from James' left hand, and wrapped around the Captain left hand.

If James had been thinking more he might have wandered if this wasn't getting into a Vincent situation all over again, but he didn't. It was also an unfounded fear, whatever the Captain's body was made of it didn't weigh more then a normal human, (as James had previously had been pretty sure of) and James' enhanced strength saw him in good stead.

The Captain however was not about to be rescued, with his right hand, he drew his sword and cut the wires; he soon plummeted from view. James watched with bemusal.

Then he suddenly found his right hand being raised into the air. "The winner, paws down, by ring out, the challenger!" Schrodinger was suddenly back right next to James. At seeing the look in James' eyes he further explained. "Don't worry, a fall like that would only tick the Captain off." That knowledge made James feel a lot better, and so did when Schrodinger handed him back his hat from wherever it had gone.

------------------------

Sephiroth was suddenly nowhere near the temple. Instead he was standing on top of some kind of airship, and though there was no sign of the group, he was not alone. "Ahh General Sephiroth, my Chief Warrant Officer told me you might be arriving." The man's voice was completely dissonant with his appearance.

The man stood with his back to Sephiroth, Sephiroth noticed one thing at a glance: the man was short. Shorter then James, not short in away that seemed to suggest he wasn't full grown the way James was, the man was just short. Sephiroth was sure he was at least half again this man's height. Still for all the disparity in size, the man's voice had an unmistakable power to it. "Come, and look upon the spoils of war!"

Sephiroth stepped forward, and carefully examined the man's face, after seeing the man's face, his voice had even less to do with his appearance. The man was not only short, but plump, a pair of glasses rested across his face as well. Despite these things, and despite the fact that the man's white outfit bore no military insignia of any type, Sephiroth could not dispel his first impression of the man. His odd accent that took Sephiroth a few moments to fully understand, his piercing blue eyes, his short blond hair, somehow Sephiroth knew this was not a man easily dismissed regardless of his body.

Looking down, Sephiroth found himself hypnotized by what he saw, an entire city the size of Midgar being annihilated. Fires burned out of control everywhere he looked, those buildings not reduced to conflagrations had been blasted into pieces of rock and stone.

Blood rushed in the streets, and the screams of the wounded had become an ever present addition to the battlefield. "Magnificent, isn't it General? I may never command the sheer number of men you have in battle, but behold my men's sheer audacity! It has always been my dream to see this, the dead walk in the streets, march in the uniforms of my men!

Behold, the wonder of it, my wonderful perpetual war machine! Those struck down, will only rise again to serve me, both friend and foe alike, only a lack of enemies to slay can stop this now, and that will not be swift in coming. Is it not majestic to watch, war, eternal!"

Sephiroth finally pried his eyes away from the destruction below him to meet the man's eyes. That's when Sephiroth discovered that there were still things that could frighten him. This small chubby man, smiled at Sephiroth, and looked like it was all he could do not to laugh at the unmitigated destruction he had created. "This is disgusting. War is about killing the people who disagree with you strongly enough to take up arms against you. This isn't a war, it's a slaughter."

The man returned his attention to the unperceivable horrors below him, still smiling. "General, you know nothing about war. This war is a child who I have labored for over half a century. It was such a pathetic thing at first, a frail thing almost strangled to death by those who killed its parents. But I protected it, I nourished it, I planned so that it might grow strong, and now this war can fend for itself. It makes my eyes water with crimson tears to think that something this glorious could have almost been killed before it had a chance to breath."

Sephiroth at least now understood what it was about this man that was so horrific. Hojo in his own mind would justify anything he did in the name of science, but this man had no need of justification. Justification was for those to afraid to admit to themselves, this man gloried in his own monstrosity. He raised his hands (which still failed to rise higher then Sephiroth's neck) and moved them back and forth with gusto, as if to orchestrate the chaos below.

"Listen to the sounds of it General! Listen to the arias composed by the screams of the dead and dieing who know they have no chance to survive! Listen to the percussion section of tank shells slamming against amour and buildings and new ones are loaded into place! Listen to the flutes of rapid fire automatic weapons being fired and tearing into flesh! Listen to the high shrill whistles of shells tearing through the air! Listen to the tubas as my zeppelins' weapons lay waste to entire buildings with a single blow! Listen to the magnificent drums of men marching in formation off to do battle with their foes! Listen to the crash of cymbals when a vehicle reaches speeds so great that the sound of it's approach will not be herd by corpses of it's victims until after it arrives! Listen to and watch my masterpiece General, is it not beyond comparison?"

Sephiroth could agree with that last comment, this was without a doubt, beyond words. It was beyond reason. It was beyond human understanding, he doubted even Jenova could grasp this. While Sephiroth was deep in thought his companion began to examine another airship just like the one they were on.

"Your Firecat is a most spectacular monster General, I congratulate you on recognizing his talents. The way he dances with his own insanity, I have only seen one other as remarkably evil as him. The fact that he is in complete ignorance to his own bestiality, it is so horrific it gives me shivers.

He is the base material I think, from him could come a race which is truly superior to all others. Single minded in their devotion to survive regardless of their situation or cost to others. A race that would never war upon themselves, but slowly expand and make unknowing war against all others as they secure lebensraum, excuse me, living space for themselves."

Sephiroth looked in the direction the man was looking, and he could vaguely see a figure in red who might be James. How this man could make out James if Sephiroth couldn't clearly see him was a mystery. So was most of what the man said, but he managed to grasp one thing to say. "James is sterile."

The man still did not look away from what he could somehow see even though he was wearing glasses. "What a pity. But nature will find a way to make sure the strongest survive and bury their lessers. I would watch that one closely General, there are great things ahead for him. Of course he is no match for the other devil in red, but then age must be taken into account.

Behold, General, a monster that makes even immortal vampires shiver. It's sheer speed, not just in battle, but in life. A vampire requires two decades to fully mature as a human, and then requires time to become moderately proficient with all his newfound abilities. His speed, it puts even the Angel of Death to shame, how soon he has become not only combat worthy but accustomed to war. We witness a being that clearly an improvement on the human method, 'a natural killer' beyond doubt. Oh, they couldn't replicate you, but this wonder has no ethical restraints, he follows orders and survives, a lesser weapon, perhaps, but _he_ will never turn in the hand of his wielder.

Humanity is pathetically weak because of how long we take to mature, and vampires share the same weakness even if the strength they acquire over time is exponentially greater. This Firecat, ready to kill from the moment he is created, like a tank rolling off the factory lines, instantly ready for its task.

What does it matter if he is sterile, he was made by science, that science perfected, not single units, but in battalion and armies. General imagine if you can, an army that materializes in mere months from nothing, it is fantastic. He desires self preservation but has no understanding of its nature, amazing.

Say his name is not Firecat, but Blitzcat, for his nature is not that of fire but of lightning. He needs no careful stacking of materials, or accumulation of resources to cause his creation, he simply is. Unpredictable in the extreme, destructive to any who find themselves in his path. Materalized in the sky above us, coming and going so fast that we see him coming before we hear him, and even then we can only catch a glimpse. He will strike the highest object until he levels everything to the ground.

How can humanity ,even with technology, or vampires, with all our power, fight lightning? It comes and goes as it pleases and leaves us to find shelter if we have no wish to expire. General, it makes me salivate with desire to harness lightning as you have."

Sephiroth was still a couple steps behind the man who loved war because of the destruction it caused and thought James was the pinnacle of evolution. He was still so off guard at suddenly finding himself alone with this man that he had no clue what to truly make of what he said. Nor did he have any idea of how he could leave this place and get back to the temple.

Then the idea suddenly came to him in an instant, like a battle plan after gazing at a map for hours. "What is your name?" The short chubby man in white turned around and gave Sephiroth a smile that he would always see in his nightmares as he spoke with that impossibly powerful voice. "My name is Krieg." Everything got blurry after that.

------------------------

As soon as Mirri drew her first breath she knew something was wrong. Looking out through her eyes she knew something was very wrong. Somehow she was wearing that stupid helmet again, that would have to be dealt with. In a single smooth motion she half took, half tore off the Shinra guard helmet she was wearing.

Once she did that it was a simple matter to remove the black gloves that covered her white ones, the rest of the uniform could be removed later. First she took a moment to look around and see what was happening. Shinra guards raced about everywhere, some of them pulling civilians, others prodding them at gun point, still others emptying canisters of flammable compounds onto houses.

It was the not the activity that was most familiar to her, but the setting, it was Corel. She didn't ask questions, that would give her away, so for that moment, she just waited, and watched. The orders being barked about by various men were quite clear. Herd all the people away from the houses and the mine, burn the houses to the ground, destroy the mine and equipment, don't be shy about making the people move faster.

Mirri watched it all with the traditional stance with emotions one level removed that Sephiroth prided himself on in battle and out. Mirri generally showed it in neither, but the sheer level of rage that she was starting to feel was so hot that it was cold. She could see several houses that were already ablaze, and more that were being doused in flammable in preparation for the torch and grenades. She notice in particular that her house had already been burned to the foundations.

"Stop."

The men were probably so surprised at Mirri's words that they actually followed her commands. She slowly sized up the entire contingent, at least two score of Shinra guards. "Every single one of you Shinra fs has exactly five seconds to the get the hell out of my sight with your lives and limbs intact. After that I start teaching you how it feels to be helpless."

As Mirri spoke she removed the rest of the Shinra uniform revealing her white bodysuit and pants. Men laughed at her at that point, and Mirri laughed mentally at them. They stopped laughing when five of them dropped to the ground with blades driven through their foreheads.

Mirri loaded new blades into her right glove, and smiled. "My name is Mirri Catwarrior, my blades will make no distinction between riffraff!" The guards opened up on Mirri with their guns figuring sheer weight of lead would end her life. It was as foolish as attempting to stop a flood with a handkerchief. At the time Corel was attacked SOLDIER was not widely implemented, and those Shinra had were busy fighting an actual war.

These men were nothing but extortionists who could deal with unarmed civilians. Their aim was not all that good, or their reflexes all that fast. Nor were they armed with the right tools, to take down SOLDIERS you needed mako tipped bullets, regular lead ones hurt, but it took a lot of them to take down a first class SOLDIER.

Not that many of them hit Mirri, you had to shoot very well and make sure to lead if you wanted to hit a SOLDIER. Even if you did try to lead, you had to know in which direction they would move. That only helped you if you the SOLDIER didn't have access to cover. It was short, sweet, and bloody.

Mirri had all the cover she wanted in the shapes of houses that hadn't been set on fire. Her second attack took down seven men, and then she ducked for cover momentarily. In that short time, she reloaded her gloves and poked her head back out to fire again. That took down some more guards. After repeating this process four times, there were only two guards left.

Mirri rushed right at them, easily dodged their startled shots, and killed one instantly with a punch that drove five blades into his skull. The very last one she had some fun with. She sliced his arm off before she drove her blades into his heart. After that she fired the blades, wreaking even more havoc on the already dead man's chest, just because it felt right.

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Aeris was suddenly in a room, that was more of a prison then a room. She was seated in a chair, and across the table from her sat another woman. She was wearing a black bodysuit similar to Mirri's white one except with no sleeves of any kind. She was wearing white gloves, and had white pants, but there was something just wrong about the women.

This was caused by the fact that half her body was covered with tattoos. Tattoos of various words that seemed to blend together in impossible combinations. Her left eye was red, and seemed to never move from its position nor fully open, her right eye was blue. Her blond hair was cut short, and a lit cigarette was gripped in her mouth. "Where am I?"

The question was out of Aeris' mouth before she had time to even think about what could be going on. The women smirked at Aeris, managing to grip her cigarette with her teeth, her teeth that did not look right for some reason. "Simple, your doing the same thing everyone else is doing, facing their worst fears."

As the women spoke a thin line of smoke left her mouth, and Aeris' eyes were helplessly drawn to the wicked looking scythe that the women had leaning nearby. This was not a scythe like James used to have, this monstrosity clearly needed to be wielded in two hands, and its blade gleamed in the low light. Regardless of whether or not Aeris' face betrayed her fears, the women knew them.

"Oh, don't worry about me killing you, that's too simple. Death is a release for your victims unless you do it right. What I'm going to do is show you a few things that your going to remember for the rest of your life, which won't be much longer."

Aeris tried to scream at what happened next, but suddenly discovered that her vocal chords no longer worked. All she could feel was a sudden piercing mental pain, as it happened. Her mind was scorched beyond recognition in flames.

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Alex pawed at the ground in irritation, nothing good could from this. The Silver Fang would be most upset about this. After all, Alex was a member of the pack and the Silver Fang was his alpha, he should have warned them about this. But then, a warning would do more harm then good in this situation. There was no defense against this threat, except to face it straight out.

Any attempt to prepare would just bring the more dangerous ideas to the forefront where they could do the most damage. So Alex did the only thing that he could do, wait, and how he hated it. He thought that the Child of Gaia would be unaffected as well, but such was not the case.

It made sense in retrospect, the magic was designed to keep anything but Cetra out, as a half Cetra the Child of Gaia would be affected as well. That left Alex watching the other seven members of the pack as they fought the spell.

The Ragabash of course looked like he was busily chasing a ball of yarn, or pouncing on a mouse. What chance was there that the spell would overcome him? The Black Fury's body was slightly tensed, but her face had the pleased smile of one who was dealing with problems the way Black Fury's had been trained to do from birth; slice it's balls off, then follow with the head.

The Silver Fang's face showed only disgust, but no danger. The Child of Gaia's face was frozen in wordless fear, and pain it caused Alex was the same he felt every time he killed a chocobo, sacrifices must be made for the rest to survive. The Shapeshifter showed no emotion.

The vampire, Alex did not need words for his expression, he was apparently finding out what it felt like to be the hunted rather then the hunter, something Alex greatly approved of. Last of all, the Glasswalker seemed to be enjoying himself for some odd reason. But then, who could understand a Glasswalker, Alex had no intention of trying to.

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Niro discovered what it was like to personally experience hell on earth. He was walking through a city that had apparently been personally targeted by God's wrath. Everywhere he went he saw people fighting each other, if they could even be called people. One side looked like medieval knights in shining armor, except that they were armed with automatic weapons.

Another side was made up of men in black uniforms with red eyes, vampires if Niro was not mistaken in his guess. The third side was the most enigmatic however, they defied description.

Each and every single one of them however was surrounded by a strange black glow, but that was the only thing they had in common. This army was made up of men of every type Niro could imagine or heard of. Soldiers riding on odd animals like chocobos but with four legs, wielding lances dashed here and there.

Men with scimitars fought against their foes who should have mowed them down with their automatic weapons. However the beings with black glows around them refuse to stop. Whenever one of them fell, another three would immerge from the shadows themselves.

A group of knights in shining amour would mow them down with their guns, only to have another wave of them rush over their fallen comrades and tear their foes limb from limb. After they died, the knights to would rise and be surrounded by the black glow.

Helicopters shone lights from the sky, but it was as if the entire city was covered in a black fog. Occasionally Niro caught a rare glimpse of the man who apparently led the third army. He was not surrounded by the black glow, he was the black glow. He was death personified, Niro wanted his soul more then he had ever wanted any other. But the moment Niro saw his eyes, it happened.

Those eyes focused on Niro, like nothing else had, in those man's eyes he existed, and they had a clear message for him. "You think my soul would look good in your collection? I think yours would look rather magnificent in mine." Niro pulled back into the shadows and away from the man, he knew when he had met a better monster.

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Vincent was in a garden of death. Dead people were everywhere he looked, but those directly in front of him were the most important. Master and the others were dead. James and Mirri had been impaled on the same pike, Mirri was on top and the pike apparently had gone through both of their hearts. That cat had been annoying, he had been so sure that leaving him underneath the huntress would dampen his spirits.

Oh well, apparently the cat had expired the same way he had lived, with an annoying smirk of satisfaction on his face, at least the huntress had screamed incoherently for a while. Aeris had been impaled, through the chest. Only sure fire way to make sure that not only did we kill her but also deal with that whelp she was carrying. Wasn't the first time doing it that way, good, well practiced method, and why should you deviate from what worked? She deserved it and more for making me remember the source of my pain.

Alex was hung upside down, his skin blistered, he had taken his time to burn to death, but that werewolf was dealt with, and his howls of pain had been quite amusing, creatures of the night made such wonderful music whether alive or dieing. Niro had been beheaded, and his eyes held open by some invisible force. Only way to make sure a Shapeshifter was dead, check to see his eyes stayed one color, in this case black. He had died without uttering a word.

Melkore had loved machines, he would be pleased to have one kill him. In this case, his entire body, neck included, had been stretched on a specialized rack. That Doctor would have been pleased by the simple yet efficient design of the contraption that had done him in. But the master piece (literally) of it all was Sephiroth.

He lay on the ground dead, his entire body from head to toe marked up with wounds. He had taken a long time to die, but, eventually the sheer number of wounds he had been dealt had finally ended his life. His face would ever be frozen in an impotent scream of rage, the man had finally come to the realization that it wasn't fun to have what happened to others happen to you.

Vincent wanted to scream with sick rage, but he couldn't. His eyes were drawn to the one living person he could see looking around the garden of bodies killed in every possible manor of depravity. The women wore a green suit that fully concealed her figure, her platinum blond hair was well accented in the moonlight.

She grasped a lit cigar in her right hand, and took a calming inhale from the small cigar, then she spoke. "Most magnificent servant, you followed my orders to the letter. You dyed their blood itself a deeper shade of crimson, not a single one of them who set foot on this island is still alive." The women was looking at Vincent, who slowly realized why that was. Vincent had killed them.

He had killed every single person here, and he taken his time in dealing with these seven in particular. He suddenly felt strands of invisible wire tie him tight leaving him unable to speak his mind. Instead his mouth parted and a voice that was not his spoke. "It was a pleasure my master, I haven't had so much fun since the turks!" In his mind, where he still could, Vincent screamed in his own powerless rage.

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Melkore was on stage playing with his partner. They where M. H. and M. M. the greatest musicians in the world, any audience in the world that they couldn't please might as well be dead, in more ways then one. They were well into their sixth number, Melkore playing guitar and his partner in his purple suit and pink shirt playing his saxophone. The only thing missing was the cheers and applause of the crowd.

Of course, this could be attributed to the fact that somewhere along the line, neither of them knew exactly when, both were too deep in the music, every member of the audience had slumped over dead. Technically some of them had been thrown to the ground dead, slain either by obvious bullet holes, or by a more insidious force that smashed their skeletons to mush.

Thus despite their lack of an audience, the two of them saw no reason to stop playing, after all, both of them could hear the wonderful sound echoing from each other's instruments, that was all the audience they needed. As the two stopped playing however, a voice spoke. That was disconcerting as everyone in the saloon should have been dead, what he said was even more so.

"Beautiful! Truly murder music! Outstanding, the dieing screams were glossed over by your notes, giving them no value at all! Best, you leveled an entire tavern just to get one person! I like your style." The man had bright blond hair, and too bright blue eyes, not to mention being dressed in a completely outlandish style.

"What are you doing here?" Melkore's partner asked the question, but both of them where thinking it. The man smiled as he looked at them. "I'm collecting knives, sharps ones, capable of mass slaughter."

End chapter

FN: We are now reaching normality, anything you still can't cope with is your own problem. The characters from James', Sephiroth's, Aeris', Niro's and Vincent's daydream all belong to Kohta Hirano. The characters from Melkore's daydream belong to Yasuhiro Nitow. And I would like to say that personally I have nothing against arians, but sadly, they make good villains. Other people made the path, I'm just following, that's the kind of society we live in.

**OWAN: I think he means Aryan supremacists. He'd better mean Aryan supremacists. He's just bad with words(but you all know that, it's the reason I have such a big stake in the creative process here).**


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19 Only you can save your life

FN: I'd like to make a quick you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours notice available to everyone who reads this. (Blinks a couple times and looks at you with huge kitten eyes) PLEASE spread the word around about this fic, or at least set it as one of your favorite pieces on your accounts. Since your all enjoying it (at least I trust you haven't read 19 chapters into it just out of pure morbid fascination) please spread the word around. I say this because yes I would like it, but more importantly, if you people can get a whole bunch of people reading this piece, and leaving reviews then it'll improve Alex's mood, and the more reviews we get, the more motivated Alex will be to work updating, which will result in these chapters being up sooner. Also, as one artist to another, I would appreciate you giving us a leg up to that bottom wrung of the ladder called success. In short, show you care, be a Jenova's witness. And now, on with in the show.

Mirri and Vincent woke up in the same room. Mirri calmly stretched as if waking up from a perfectly ordinary sleep and started to examine the room. Vincent slowly forced his eyes open in fear, saw Mirri and instantly shut them. Like a child he slammed his hands against the ground (with impressive results considering his left hand) and bellowed in pain. "NO MORE! NO MORE!"

Mirri had never had what you might call the strongest of maternal instincts, but she didn't like to see her friends in pain. "Vincent what is it?" Vincent slowly opened his eyes, and Mirri noted something odd about them. Was it possible to say that Vincent's blood red eyes were bloodshot? If it was, then that was without a doubt their current condition.

Either way, his eyes told the story of someone who was far from well in body mind and soul (assuming the last one counted for vampires) to Mirri. "Let me touch you to make sure you're real." If Melkore had uttered the phrase in his normal tone of voice, Mirri would have given him a one way ticket for a trip across the room. Vincent, however, said it with such great conviction (or lack thereof), that Mirri would allow it.

Slowly Vincent crawled on hands and knees over to Mirri, and slowly placed his right hand on her leg, then pressed down as if he expected her to fade away. Once he was suitably sure that Mirri was real in nature and not just a figment of his imagination he broke away.

Crimson lines streaked his face, and it took Mirri a moment to understand why: you can only excrete what you have inside, vampires would therefore cry blood tears. As the streaks of red covered Vincent's face like battle wounds his voice was a high tortured wail. "I killed you Mirri, I killed all of you, including Master! I didn't just kill you, I tortured you, defiled you! I impaled you and James on the same pike!"

Whenever you were faced with an insurmountable problem, you had to slice it down to size. Clear concise details had a way of doing that, and so that's what Mirri wanted. "Was I on top?" Vincent's voice stabilized for the shortest moment to answer. "Yes!" This was followed by more lines of red and more incoherent screams.

Only one thing to do about it, someone in this room had to take charge and it clearly wasn't going to be Vincent. "Vincent, shut up." Mirri sat down and next to Vincent, and for a moment at least he followed her orders.

"Now then, you're fine. It's called the 'sub-conscious' for a reason, it's below the stuff we think while we're awake. Because of that, we don't have any direct control over it. What matters, is that your subconscious is an accurate reflection of, if not exactly reality, universal truths. If you had impaled James on top of me, then I'd say we had problems. But clearly, there's nothing fundamentally wrong with your mind."

Vincent looked to be deeply engrossed in Mirri's words, which meant that she was making progress. "So, Vincent, you have two choices at this point and time, you can continue worrying about what your mind created to frighten you, or you can think about this." Mirri unbuttoned the top two buttons of her jacket, it had a high neckline, but her bodysuits neckline ended where a normal t-shirts would have.

This action had the appropriate effect. Vincent, took one look at Mirri's neck, and Mirri could see gears turning in his head. The only difference was that it would have been lower buttons with a human, you had to use the right kind of bait for the right kind of prey. "You know, it looks like you lost a lot of blood crying."

Simple statement, well placed emphasis, all the right motions, and to top it off, a touch of concern. It seemed like only the blink of an eye for Mirri but was probably much longer. Either way not long after Mirri made the statement, she found herself buttoning her jacket back up, raising it carefully over the two circles of raw skin on the front of her neck where Vincent had licked the wounds he had created closed.

Vincent for his part who looked to be a year or two older than James did, looking over the red version of a Turk outfit he wore. "Sorry Mirri, however awkward it is, I don't have either the cigarettes or the lighter." Mirri touched the sore spots once, and then adjusted her jacket to its normal position. "You **so** owe me one for that Vincent."

Vincent, for his part was busy examining his reflection in the small pistol he had been found with. Apparently whatever he saw pleased him because he nodded, returned it to its normal holster and then smiled at Mirri. "I think I owe you two for that. Now let's go find the others."

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James rolled over, and scratched his left ear with his left hand, his standard wake up ritual. "Hey Alex, where's everyone else?" James and Alex where the only ones left in the room they had walked in through. Alex growled slightly as he "spoke". /They've been moved to various parts of the temple Ragabash. The spell had no effect on me because I'm a Cetra, and you proved the most effective for dealing with your fears.\

James rolled over and stood up slowly. "Oh neat, so do we need to find the others?" Alex turned his attention to the temple doors. /No Ragabash, they're going to find us. All roads lead to the same destination, if you have the right intention.\ Well, that was a load off James' shoulders. "So all we have to do is move through this place, that sounds easy. In fact, your a Cetra so you should be able to point the way right?"

Alex pawed the ground again in irritation. /Follow me, Ragabash, and save your breath for running instead of asking questions.\ "No fair! You can talk without breathing!" Alex didn't respond, he just started off and so James followed him.

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Melkore slowly rose from his sleep and stared at Niro, who was next to him. "Do you ever get the feeling that you..." Before Melkore could go any further Niro adjusted his glasses for apparently cosmetic reasons and spoke. "Yeah." The two exchanged one more look and they both slowly stood up.

"Okay then, well the world isn't gonna save itself." Guitar strapped across his chest, Melkore was ready, Niro adjusted his holster and nodded as well. There was only one door out of the room, no reason not to follow it.

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Sephiroth and Aeris came awake at almost the same time. Sephiroth couldn't stop himself from shuddering, he had glimpsed a human being who could surpass even Hojo for evil. However it was only a brief shudder and he quickly pushed it from his mind. Aeris was another matter all together.

If Sephiroth had shuddered, Aeris was shivering, whatever the ill effects of her experience, they were still with her. Sephiroth found the sight bittersweetly gratifying. Sephiroth had always been telling Aeris that if she continued to play with fire, sooner or later she would get burned. Now she had finally gotten scorched.

However, as soon as Sephiroth had that particular thought, he bit it back mentally. Not like this, whatever had happened to her, mental low blows like these disgusted Sephiroth. With what Vincent had told him in mind, Sephiroth managed to force compassion into his voice. "It's okay Aeris, it's over." Aeris slowly met Sephiroth's eyes, and spoke in a voice that was not her own. "No it isn't Sephiroth, it's just starting."

Damn it, why couldn't it be Mirri or James instead of him? But he was a General, and she was one of his soldiers; her well-being was his responsibility. "What happened?" Aeris' voice was a whimper. "Sephiroth, I can't close my eyes, I can't, the voices..."

Sephiroth tried not to breath a sigh of relief, _this_ he might be able to do something about. Empathy and compassion were insubstantial and hard to pin down, teaching a skill was easy. "Aeris, focus on my voice, only on my voice, focus on my voice till there isn't room in your mind for voices. Focus on my voice, till it's the only voice you can hear, and then shut the door on all the others"

Aeris closed her eyes, and grabbed Sephiroth's hand. Sephiroth started to pull free, but stopped. For whatever reason, she seemed to need this, need the contact. She slowly drew a deep breath, then slowly opened her eyes and let go of Sephiroth's hand. "Thank you Sephiroth." That was more success then Sephiroth ever had against Jenova, but he wasn't about to tell her that.

"I can't believe that you've been dealing with this your entire life." Okay, if Sephiroth couldn't manage compassion, fake weakness could stand in its place. "It's only like that for me when Jenova is near." Her own weakness momentarily put to rest, Aeris instantly became interested in someone else's problems. "From the day you were born?" What Sephiroth wanted to do was terminate this conversation right where it was, with extreme prejudice. But he didn't have a choice, the only way that he could be sure about keeping Aeris close to him was to keep himself close to her.

So he spoke about as honestly as he ever felt like doing with his past. "About as far back as I can remember. It got slightly better five years ago, after Nibelhiem. Before that, I couldn't walk in Midgar without hearing voices whispering to me at every turn." "How could you stand it?" He had survived it, wasn't that enough? "Because I could either keep going, or I could roll over and die, that was the choice I had. I did what I had to do to survive, and I survived. "

"Is that all there is for you in the world Sephiroth, survival?" "No, I intend to kill the people who did this to me. Jenova, Hojo, Rufus, those three and others will die by my hand." "Then what?" "Once I kill off every single person responsible for this, I'll lay waste to the entire Shinra organization."

"After that?" "Then I'm going to move so far north that I never see another human being for the rest of my life."

"What?" "I said, I'm going to move so far north that I never see another human being again." "Why Sephiroth?" "You have to ask why? Because humanity disgusts me! Humans care for nothing more than their own gratification. Look at what they do to this world. Mako power, wars, depopulating other species for their own benefit, they would do Jenova proud."

"Sephiroth, humanity isn't that bad." "No, they're not, humanity isn't as bad as Jenova, that is why I will kill one, and plan to ignore the other." "Sephiroth, what has humanity done to you that has made you feel you have to remove yourself from it?" Oh, that was a mistake: Aeris wanted Sephiroth to tell her, he would.

"What has humanity done to me? How would you feel if you learned you where created solely so that others could profit from your abilities? You want to know why I hate humanity? Do you know why I'm General Sephiroth, do you know why I don't have a last name? Because my father was Dr. Hojo, I believe your short acquaintance with him should have been more then enough for you to realize what he's capable of. The kind of things he wanted to do with you? He did them to me. He did them because he wanted to advance science for the sake of humanity. Does that give you any understanding why I don't appreciate humanity?"

That finally knocked Aeris back on her heels. "Sephiroth…" "Come on, we have to find the Black Materia before Jenova can."

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"Hey Tseng, whatcha doing? Looking for the Black Materia?" Tseng turned around, and he was not happy to see James and Alex judging from his expression. He turned around and glared at both of them with blazing blue eyes. "Firecat, you're an unwanted presence here, go."

James and Alex exchanged glances, nothing to do about this one. /Get of Fenris do not retreat!\ "Yeah Tseng, this is different then back in Rocket Town, your gonna get hurt this way."

Tseng glared at the pair of them and slowly reached for his new pistol. "That's just fine for me, I'm different too. I've been upgraded also, or should I say enhanced? I've realized something Firecat. Regardless of what you say or do, humanity is going to be swept aside by Jenova, like the sand by the ocean. I've embraced Jenova, and now you two can die!"

The first bullet blew James' hat right off his head, leaving a second bullet hole in it. Holding his smoking gun, Tseng smiled. "Silver bullets, your lucky I meant to miss that time!" He was a lot faster, James was sure of that.

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The Wyrm servant was strong and fast but there was only one of him against Alexander and the Ragabash. For all his humor, the Ragabash was not quite so bad at combat. The Wyrm servant was kept moving rapidly if he wanted to avoid those slashing wires. He had silver bullets in those guns, Alex could tell by the smell, so he kept moving to avoid them.

The contest was a forgone conclusion. With one smooth motion while the Wyrm servant was reloading his weapon, Alex attacked. No need to use tooth and claws, goblins and gremlins did everything Alex needed done.

The Wyrm Servant attempted to reload his gun, and the "clip" as that was what it was called apparently, bounced right out. A moment later more pieces of the gun that Alex's didn't understand (or want to) shot out of their respective places. Alex allowed himself a proper preen of satisfaction at that sight. /Better run before I crush your windpipe Wyrm worshipper!\

The Wyrm servant tossed aside his broken weapon and removed a new one. It was small and circular, the function of these "grenades" had been explained to Alex once by Mirri. Thus when the Wyrm servant threw it both James and Alex leapt away from it, even if they did so in opposite direction.

It was at this point, that the Wyrm Servant showed his true speed by dashing between them. By the time the smoke from the explosion cleared he was gone. However he had escaped in the opposite, direction from which they had been going. The Wyrm servant was running away, Alex had and the Ragabash had done their job, now to find the Black Materia.

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Vincent, is that what it looks like?" Vincent took one look at what Mirri was looking at before agreeing. "That is what it looks like." Mirri paused for a moment, and took a moment to flex her hands, and run her hands through her hair (unintentionally giving Vincent a free show of the back side of her neck) and sighed.

"You know, this is shaping up to be a nice fairytale isn't it? We have the prince who takes control of the kingdom after his father's dramatic death. We have the idealistic hero who's cursed and his shape transfigured. We have a princess who is cast out of her kingdom. We have a vampire, a werewolf, and a doppelganger. We even have a mysterious girl who doesn't know her own past. So, now we have a dragon."

"We have a dragon." The giant red lizard was crouched across the doorway, its intention quite obvious, to keep people from moving past it. "So how do we kill this thing?" Vincent was checking both of his guns, and carefully examining the dragon.

"The thing's neck is too big for me to get my fangs into it, even if I could get close enough." Mirri appeared to be examining the huge dragon and comparing it to her weapons as well. "That's what I figured, it probably breaths fire to."

"Can't have a dragon if it doesn't breathe fire." "I suppose fire is right up there with sunlight and beheadings for you." "Haven't experienced it, but you're probably right." The dragon began to stretch, it looked out at Mirri and Vincent, clearly thinking the same thoughts that she and Vincent were, how to kill what it saw. As if to prove what Mirri had been contemplating correct, it let out a low growl, small streak of flame and smoke escaping its maw.

"So maybe we should go for the eyes?" Vincent looked at his guns, looked at the dragon and nodded in agreement. "If it keeps looking at us like that I could put a round in either of its eyes." "Think that would kill it?" "Hard to tell." "I could stick some blades into it." The dragon waved it wings at the pair of them in irritation waiting for them to do something. Mirri snarled back, and hissed to Vincent.

"We could just start shooting, slicing and stabbing until the thing dies." "I'd be good for that against most things, but fire breath makes this sort of dicey." The dragon slowly began to take steps forward while still keeping its body fully inside the door. Mirri and Vincent continued to glare at the monster with irritation.

Okay then, you fire, I'll dance with the thing because I can take fire breath better then you." "So basically I stand here while you go risk your life?" "Same way Dracula acted while he let Lucy go to her final death." "Well that makes me feel better about it. Where's Renfield when you need him?" "Where do you think he is, out chasing birds, and coughing up feathers. Remarkably sane for a lunatic, J. F. Renfeild."

"So you're going to go spread the light of the west?" "More or less, would you be so kind as to hold the coffin lid open?" Vincent, started shooting, and the dragon's neck darted away from them as soon as it heard the retorts of Vincent's guns. The bullets didn't go into the eyes, but they still hit its neck. Vincent dropped his smaller gun and started to reload Casull while Mirri dashed forward, blades loaded into her gloves, ready to attack the dragon.

The dragon for its part snapped its head back, ready to try and catch Mirri in its massive jaws. But Mirri was too smart for that, she kept her distance from the dragon's snapping jaws as she darted back and forth launching blades at the dragon. The dragon launched a blast of flames at her, but she ducked to the side into a small alcove for cover.

Vincent snapped his gun shut having finished reloading it. He looked carefuly down the barrel, and put six more shots into the wounded dragon. It had been so busy worrying about Mirri that it didn't pay much attention to Vincent.

These shots did what Vincent had intended, they went through the monsters eyes and blew it's brain out the back of it head. The dragon collapsed with several blades still stuck in it, and Mirri began to climb over it's body. "Nice shots Vincent, shall we continue? There are yet still more hallowed depths to extract consecrated ground from."

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"Dr. Hojo I presume?" The man in a white lab coat that unlike Melkore's looked like it had been washed recently and well cared for turned around at his name. "Morningstar, Shapeshifter, what are you doing here?" Amazingly, despite having a PHD, Melkore was beaten to the punch in this case.

"Well I got tired of waiting around in the lab, that's the problem with making a killing machine, he just might decide that you look good as a corpse also." Melkore was not far behind. "That's Doctor Morningstar to you! And considering that you can't even control the weapons you make, that speaks quite well to which of us is better at our job."

Melkore smiled, as he "tuned" his guitar. Nothing would be quite as glorious as shooting this idiot who had stood in the way between him and the rightful appreciation he disserved for years. "You don't have the guts." "Actually I do, cat guts to be exact, that's what I use for strings." Rapid playing of the guitar resulted in rapid dispersion of rounds, into various portions of the body of Dr. Simon Hojo. "Sorry if you wanted that one Niro, he who hesitates shoots last, or more often not at all"

Niro took special time to tread on Hojo's body as he walked across him. Then he fired a round into Hojo's chest. "Nah, even his soul isn't even worth extracting. Wanna put another safety bullet in him? You could use my gun." Melkore unstrapped his guitar and leaned it against the wall. Then he took the .44 magnum Niro passed him, and held it in a one handed grip. He leveled the weapon carefully at the still recognizable head of the unmoving body, and pulled the trigger.

The gun jumped in Melkore's hand like Sylvia never did, the bullet missed regardless of the short range. Adjusting to a two handed grip he put the gun directly to the head but Niro took the gun from him before he could pull the trigger. "Sorry Doctor, but only one per customer. I'm sure Alex, Sephiroth, Mirri, and Vincent will all want a chance. So unless you're gonna buy me a new clip, you've shot your round."

Melkore looked at the body he had perforated with bullets, strapped his guitar back on, and shrugged. "Okay then, since we're done with his dead body, let's keep going."

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"I think this is it." The temple had led them on a linear course up to this point, but now it finally deviated. The door they came through was one of four doors, all facing one more huge door in front of them. Aeris managed to catch her breath during the momentary rest, both of them had run fast through countless rooms all of which up to his point had seemed identical.

This room was not alike, there were more then two doors, and the room in front of them looked inviting. Sephiroth slowly walked in through it, and Aeris followed. This new room was important, it was filled with various symbols, drawings, and pictures. Underneath those where words written in a hand that Aeris had never seen before, but she could read.

She was saying it out loud before she realized the words were even being translated on the way to her brain. "Beware Crisis From the Sky, whose goal is destruction of the Planet. She has created the Black Orb, that will burn all the world to ash." Before Aeris could finish the translation, someone else did.

"The death of the last of the Planet's Cetra will herald this magnificent destruction!" Aeris and Sephiroth spun to face the person who had spoke. He was leaning against a wall, with a sword strapped across his back. "So you're still alive Sephiroth, I had hoped you would have had the decency to die like a good dramatic hero. But then, as you were so found of saying, you're not a hero."

Sephiroth had none of his traditional emotional control, he glared at the man with unmitigated anger. The man Sephiroth was glaring at was noticeably shorter then him. He had blond hair in a style that was sickeningly familiar, and his eyes were a shade of too blue mako enhancement. His sword was also painfully familiar to Aeris, it had been Zack's sword. "What the hell are you doing here Strife?"

The man smirked arrogantly remaining calm while Sephiroth's every motion spoke of impossible fury battling flawless control. "What do you think Sephiroth? Waiting for you, so that I can finish what we started in Nibelhiem, and Jenova almost finished on the way to Costa Del Sol. It's such a shame that traitor got in the way. I'll kill him slow for that, and your pet vampire too, though he'll probably do himself in like he almost did. The Shapeshifter, the werewolf also, I'll kill them all." Sephiroth drew Masamune slowly and gripped it in both hands. "There's just one problem with that plan Strife, you need to deal with me first!"

"You think your life matters Sephiroth? You always had an inflated sense of self worth. Don't you realize that the Black Materia is already within Jenova's grasp?" "How." It was not a question, it was a command rammed home as surely as Sephiroth would ram home a blow from his sword. Aeris found herself answering at the exact same moment the man Sephiroth called Strife did, the answer was written on the walls. "This entire temple is the Black Materia." Strife cackled gleefully as he finished his answer.

"Isn't is wonderful? This entire temple is the Black Materia, all that is necessary is to make a few simple adjustments to the inside of the temple to make this place revert to its true form! But, the adjustments must be made from this room, and then whoever does it will be crushed to dust! Jenova has plenty of willing servants who can handle the task, do you have any such men Sephiroth? Do you have shock troops, willing martyrs for the good of all? Even if you can defeat me, you won't be able to retrieve the Black Materia!"

"I'll cross that bridge when I come to it, Strife, and walking across your body is a pleasant way to travel!" Sephiroth leapt to attack and Strife drew the sword that Aeris remembered as Zack's. The two pitted their blades each other with total commitment to the struggle. Sephiroth wielded Masamune with the skill that had made him General, and had let him dispatch countless foes.

He used the sword's great length to help keep him from getting too close where he could have used his blades design to his advantage. Strife for his part was fighting with what Aeris could only assume was the strength of insanity. Zack's blade was not nearly as long as Sephiroth's, but it was wider and apparently just as strong. Sephiroth was clearly surprised that his foes blade was able to withstand so many blows from his.

Strife thus forced his way forward, trying to get close enough to Sephiroth to force a blow that Sephiroth had to block instead of dodge. However, Sephiroth wouldn't allow that, the room was plenty wide enough for him to dance back and forth away from his foes blade. "You'll never be a match for me!" Sephiroth managed to get an edge by holding his blade with one hand, while he used to his other hand to summon a bolt of lighting towards Strife.

It knocked him backwards, but he held onto his blade. "I don't have to be a match for you Sephiroth, you are no match for the strength of Jenova! You will defeat yourself! EXIT!" A green glow surrounded Strife and then he was gone. Sephiroth began to examine the huge frame that Strife had been standing in front of.

Before Sephiroth could ask the question Aeris answered. "I can understand it, it's all very simple, you just have to move those blocks on the wall around some." "Which leaves us the question of who can do it." "I can do it Seph!" Aeris turned around and saw the one person on the planet who could call Sephiroth by an abbreviation of his name and get away with it.

James Firecat and Alex where standing in the doorway, and James had spoken. "I can move the thing Seph! I mean, It's not like, I'm alive the way you guys are, I'm not even human." Alex added his thoughts on the situation. /Hardly appropriate Ragabash, you should expire in pyrotechnic glory.\ Before James could make good on his promise or anyone could stop him, a fifth voice added his thoughts.

"Nice offer James, but unlike you I could do it and get away with it." Niro and Melkore entered behind James and Alex, and it was Niro who had spoken. "I can shrink to something small, a cockroach could crawl out of here." Melkore of course was keeping his distance from Niro, no possible martyr he. Sephiroth looked like he was about to say something, either in approval or disagreement, but then someone else decided it.

"I will do it, Master." Mirri and Vincent entered, completing the party. Vincent had spoken with complete belief, the kind that dwarfed even James' optimism and Niro's pride. "I would gladly lay down my life for yours master, and that makes me the only person suitable for the task."

Alex snorted in irritation as he turned to look at Vincent. /You will lay down your life, and you will keep it vampire if you have any true loyalty to your master. Anyone knows that a vampire can alter his shape so as to slip through even the smallest opening. If this temple shrinks to be so small that it vanishes from sight, it does not matter. So long as the temple retains it shape, you vampire, will be able to slip out of it.\ In the blink of an eye, everything slid into place, with unstoppable momentum.

"You go for it Vincent!" "Just make sure to give us some time to get out first Vincent, you're immortal, show some patience." "Very well Vincent, the task it yours." /An act that will grant honor even to you vampire, succeed.\ "And I thought I was the only game in town, good luck Vincent." "I don't care how it happens, so long as it works, it's all good."

Aeris was the only one who hadn't spoken, but everything had already been said, so she just nodded to Vincent. Sephiroth took a long pause and looked like he was calculating a battle plan in his head. "Give us ten minutes Vincent, that should be long enough for us to get out." Everyone agreed.

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As the group was starting to exit the temple it was already starting to shrink. The door grew smaller, and smaller, and James had to make a diving leap through it as it grew too small to walk through. Once they where out, it was a rather inspiring sight to watch the temple shrink to nothing. Well okay, almost nothing, it was now a small black materia, that hovered in the air.

Sephiroth walked forward, and what had once been an entire temple, he now could hold easily. "To think, the power to destroy the world, in the palm of the hand..." As soon as Sephiroth said those words however, he suddenly dropped to his legs, gripping his skull in pain. James was caught off guard just as much as the others, and before any of them could act, someone else did.

A familiar looking Turk rushed out of nowhere with blinding speed, and scooped the materia into his hand. "Yes it's glorious, and soon the world will be nothing but rubble underneath Jenova. So long." James had a strand of wire in hand, but as soon as he did, Tseng had a knife at Sephiroth's throat. "I wouldn't do that if I was you. You twitch a whisker, I kill him, slitting his throat won't be enough, but take his entire head off and he'll die." "Get. Away. From my. Master!"

The voice came from nowhere, and Tseng looked frightened by it. James held the wire unwilling to move, but he saw something. Slowly, excruciatingly slowly, a red mist was emerging from the Black Materia. "I don't care who you are, you do anything I kill Sephiroth." "I WON'T LET YOU!"

The mist suddenly began to emerge faster and faster. It was pouring out of the Black Materia like a flood. It clung to Tseng's clothing, boots, and practically to his skin. "WHAT THE HELL?" Tseng's, blade snapped in his fingers, and a moment later the claw that had snapped it came into being.

Tseng moved away just fast enough to avoid the misty hand that tried to grab his neck. With Vincent's body between James and Tseng, there was nothing he could do but watch. Tseng raced off with the Black Materia before Vincent fully emerged, and that was that.

Sephiroth was fully unconscious, but Vincent lifted him, looked at Masamune, decided he couldn't lift it, and began dragging it behind him. "We need to get some place safe for Master to recover."

End Chapter 19

**OWAN: Listen to the furbrain. Spread the word. Bring us into the light. It's 10 of 3, so I sleep now.**


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

Gather up your jackets, moving to the exits, I hope you have found a friend.

"I can't believe I'm so weak." Sephiroth was leaning against a tree with both of his hands bracing his head against the trees bark. Aeris was standing in front of him with a strangely serene expression. "It's okay Sephiroth. You did everything you could."

Sephiroth was almost animated by Aeris' words but he remained leaning against the tree. "It wasn't enough. Jenova now has the Black Materia, and it's only a matter of time before she uses it." Aeris still was neither upset nor afraid. "Don't worry about it Sephiroth, like I said, you've done everything you can, so now the torch must be passed to others. I'll be able to handle things from here."

There was something dreadfully wrong about this place, it had slowly crept up on him, but it was impossible to deny. It sapped the strength and motivation from his limbs. "Where are we?" He tried with all his might to move his hands but had no success.

"We're in the Forest of the Ancients. Through here it's just a short walk to the City of the Ancients. I'm not quite here yet either, but don't worry, I will be soon. I'll take care of everything for once Sephiroth." She turned and walked off, leaving Sephiroth alone, and unable to follow her.

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Sephiroth slowly woke up, everything was hazy at first, but he finally it all came into view. Mirri, James, Vincent, Niro and Melkore where standing around him. James was the first to speak. "Glad to see you finally opened your eyes Seph, I was getting kind of worried." Sephiroth asked two questions before he even had time to marshal his thoughts.

"How long have I been asleep, where's Aeris?" /You have slept for three days Silverfang. The Child of Gaia is gone.\ As Sephiroth sat up he saw that Alex in his natural form was sitting by the bed Sephiroth was in. Sephiroth instantly shot out questions as they came to him. "Where are we? How long has she been missing, how did she leave?"

The answer came back mixed from various throats as everyone's answers overlapped. "She left not long after we got here." "We're in Gongaga Master, it was the closest place to the Temple." "She fing took the Eagle with her!" Sephiroth felt a migraine forming. Aeris had a three day head start, and she had the Eagle, she was probably already on the northern continent.

"Then we don't have a chance in hell of catching her." Sephiroth wanted to go back into that three day sleep he had been in; at least he didn't have new problems getting thrown at him in it. "Actually Sephiroth we do, Niro and I came up with the plan. By which I mean, I came up with it, and Niro will implement it. What does this look like?"

Sephiroth looked up to see Mirri reaching into a pocket of her white jacket, and producing an odd sheet of paper. It was filled with crisscrossing lines and various names, all leading up to a picture of an odd looking chocobo. "What is that?" Mirri suppressed a thrill: she _loved_ being the first to know something. "It's a pedigree. I bought it while we were in the Gold Saucer with all the points me and Alex won. It's the pedigree for the breeding of a gold chocobo."

"Mirri we don't have time for that, we don't have any chocobos to start with." Mirri displayed the fine art of building momentum in a conversation rolling right over Sephiroth's response. "That's where Niro comes in. You see, this sheet of paper provides Niro with enough information for, guess what?" As she spoke, Niro shifted. It was indeed, no ordinary chocobo, its feathers glistened with golden shine that made Sephiroth's eyes water.

In the blink of an eye he was out of the bed, and instantly mounted the chocobo. "Mirri, you're in charge, get up to Costa Del Sol by foot, we'll wait for you." Before Niro could be off, a second figure joined Sephiroth on the chocobo. "Don't think you'll put an entire continent between us, Master." Sephiroth turned around, and took a moment to examine Vincent, Sephiroth hadn't eaten in three days, but it was even more obvious with Vincent.

Despite the strength in his voice he was looking a very unhealthy 40, the way Sephiroth would probably look if his Jenova cells didn't let him go for a week without eating. /Typical humans. Always rushing somewhere too fast, only to realize you've gone so far that you can't keep going forward and need to double back."

The words started in Alex's traditional wordless telepathic communication, mutated into a half human half wolf growl, and finally finished being spoken in the gruff bass that accompanied Alex's human form. This vocal transformation mirrored his physical one, yet somehow his words never lost their clarity. Alex more hefted himself onto the chocobo then managed to mount it, and his presence pushed Sephiroth forward slightly.

Niro gave a "Wark!" of irritation at Alex's presence, apparently even gold chocobos weren't meant to carry three people at once. "You don't have a chance without my help Silverfang, only a Cetra can guide you through the Forest of the Ancients." Sephiroth took a long hard look at Mirri, James, and Melkore as if daring any of them to insist that they had a reason to accompany them as well.

No one did, so Sephiroth got a tight grip on Niro with his legs, opting not to risk a handhold. Vincent did the same, followed by Alex. Sephiroth gave a starting kick to Niro, and then they where off at an almost blinding speed.

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Niro collapsed on the ground breathing hard; that was not an experience he wanted to repeat. He reverted to his normal form and cast an irritated glare at his three passengers. "Okay guys, I'm spent, you walk from here." Alex shifted back to his natural form, he seemed as glad to have the experience over as Niro was.

/Congratulation, Shapeshifter, you just put most Silent Striders to shame.\ "If I could afford to lose my lunch, I would." "We don't have time to sit here waiting." Niro rolled over so that neither Alex or Vincent could see his smirk. "Okay guys, good luck, I'll wait here for a while before I make the return trip for James, Mirri, and Melkore." Niro's part was done for now, it felt good to rest.

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If the vampire had realized just how useless his presence was on this mission was, it would be proceeding much more smoothly. As it was, Alex had to guide not one, but two beings with Wyrm taint in them through a forest designed to stop exactly such beings. Gaia seemed to be in a particularly angry and vengeful mood of recent days, but then, Alex understood that completely.

A wolf was never more dangerous then when it was backed into a corner. Gaia understood the danger it was in, even if the only thing it could do in response was lash out in blind anger at anything it could reach. Alex kept his nose low to the ground, and was constantly forced to tap his gnosis to find his way through the forest. The strand of gnosis was constantly being battered from all sides by the forest, which was attempting to prevent him from doing just that.

Of course if Alex was having a hard time in his situation, the Silverfang and Vampire had it even worse. Each step they took was a pathetic slow hobble as if they where lame in one leg and wounded in the other. They were practically crawling across the ground on their hands and knees. "Alex, how much farther is it?"

The Silverfang was drained in voice as well as in body. /We should be almost through the forest by now.\ "Good, because I feel like a need a bloody Mary, light on the Mary." /Vampire, kindly keep your pathetic attempts at humor to yourself, I have to keep my mind focused to make this work. If you distract me we could spend the rest of our lives wandering in this place.\

As Alex spoke, he almost lost his grip on his strand of Gnosis but as it was about to slip from his mind, he seized it again with a vengeance. With each step they drew closer. Suddenly it happened, Alex's strand of Gnosis exploded to life. Alex slowly looked up, the forest was now behind them, they were out.

It was, ironically, at this point that the Silverfang and Vampire both finally collapsed on the ground, as if holding onto it for dear life, because this time the ground stayed still. Alex allowed himself a satisfied smile, he had done his part.

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Aeris kept her hands tightly together as she spoke the words that she did not truly know. She could hear the footsteps of people drawing closer, but it didn't mater. The materia nested in her braid was starting to glow with warmth. She knew it was turning green as she spoke. She smiled as she heard them approach, she had done her job, it was up to others now.

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Sephiroth cursed as he descended down the stairs into the city. Aeris was sitting on the ground, with her hands grasped in payer. As he went down the stairs he saw Strife, perched a few yards above her. He drew his blade and leapt, descending straight for Aeris. No, Sephiroth wouldn't allow this, he would stop it one way or another.

Sephiroth threw all the speed he had into the effort as he dashed towards Aeris. Masamune was in his hands, and he leapt for Aeris as Strife dropped towards her. Sephiroth got there first, assuming a defensive crouch over Aeris, ready to deflect the blow, sadly he failed. The Planet, perhaps still angry that he had survived the forest, sent a shock through his body, dropping him o one knee just as the blades met.

The blade was deflected slightly, it slammed through Sephiroth's chest, and then into Aeris' back. Sephiroth growled to himself, that was all he could do, it would be up to other's to pickup where he had failed.

------------------------

Vincent felt a twinge of pain go through his body as that foolish boy stabbed his Master. That pathetic child would pay for this. Vincent increased his pace and was instantly at the side of Master and Aeris. The child drew his sword out from Masters' body, an action that forced a hiss from Vincent's mouth. "YOU DARE HARM MY MASTER? DIE!" The child attempted to slash Vincent with his sword, but Vincent easily blocked it with his claw.

At the same time he had already brought up his pistol in his right hand. "BLAM!" Now it was the child's turn to learn the meaning of pain. "BLAM." One bullet in each of the child's lungs, he dropped his sword, which clattered on the ground, before it fell from the pedestal into the water below. The child was still staring, as if surprised that Vincent could harm him. "BLAM!" Vincent put his third bullet in the child's chest, right through his left kidney. "BLAM!" If he didn't die from not being able to breath, then he would expire from the build up of poisonous chemicals in his own body.

He still stared at Vincent in mute horror as the vampire stepped forward. "Now be a good lad, and take one small step for mankind." Vincent gave him the assistance of a nice solid push.

The child lost his footing on the platform, and joined his blade in the water below. Vincent couldn't stop a slow smile from coming to his lips. He had saved his Master, he had done his job, what happened next was in the hands of others.

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Aeris lay on her back, she was on the platform, but everyone was gone. She lay on her back, pain pulsating up her body because of the wound in her back. The platform was levitating over nothing, even the water was gone, but a silver light drifted all around her. /Your name?\

It was the Planet's voice, but it was different. This was the first time that she had been able to fully understand the voice. It was the first time that it had not just spoken to her, but it was the first time it had asked her a question. Was this because she was about to die, and she was about to enter the Lifestream? She didn't know, but she answered anyway.

"Aeris, Aeris Gainsborough." Somehow, regardless of her wound she didn't have much trouble breathing or speaking. /Do you want to live?\ The pain seemed to be fading away somehow, she must be dieing. "To live, life..." The Planet's voice came back even more insistent then before. /Do you wish to live for eternity?\

Live forever, did she want that? To just go on, and on and on, and on? Like Vincent, like Niro, like Melkore, like Mirri, like James, like Alex, like Sephiroth. The silver light was dancing closer and closer to her, somehow asking her to touch it. "Eternity, I don't know?"

The Planet's voice wasn't quite correct, she knew it wasn't with the next question. It was like a mixture of the Planet's voice and Alex's. /Do you wish to be disabled and incomplete forever?\ "Incomplete..." What else could she say, what else could she think/Do you not wish to be a perfect being?\

"I want... I want... that which the Planet has intended for me, and I now finally have a chance to posses." The silver light drew closer and closer, it almost brushed up against her body. At the same time the pain from the wound in her chest became brutally clear. "I, who, could die, the chance to live again, I don't want to be a victim any longer."

Once more the voice struck her with that same question as before. /Do you wish to live for eternity?\ What else could she say? The image of Sephiroth leaning over her body flashed before her eyes. Her alpha had told her to live, she couldn't disobey a command from her alpha what would the pack say? She hook her head weakly, it was filled with thoughts that weren't her own, were they? "I want to live... for eternity."

A moment later, the silver light suddenly consumed her. It engulfed her body, and Aeris screamed in pain. Her entire body twisted and contorted as the silver light made itself a part of her. As it happened to her, Aeris was slowly able to realize something through the mind numbing pain, the wound in her back no longer hurt her.

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Dam it, this wasn't fair. Sephiroth had done every single thing he could think of, and he had still failed. When the time had come he had even attempted to block the blow with his own body, and that had not been enough. Damn the weakness the Planet had struck him with for daring to enter the sleeping forest. It rendered him useless when he was most needed. He and Aeris had suffered almost the exact same wounding pattern, but that didn't matter.

He was General Sephiroth, he was above simple Jenova and mako enhancements. To him that chest wound regardless of how big, was of no importance, it wouldn't even leave a scar by tomorrow morning. But she was only a half Cetra, and half human. That wound would kill her. Damn it, Sephiroth wasn't about to have Aeris die when they had done everything they could to keep her alive. Didn't she have any respect for their efforts?

/The Child of Gaia will survive Silverfang, step away from her if you please?\ Just like Alex. Sephiroth had practically flown down the stairs to reach Aeris in time. Vincent had followed suit once Sephiroth had been hurt. Alex had yet to break his leisurely sedate pace as he had made his way down to them. "No she won't Alex, she doesn't have any kind of regeneration, unlike you or me."

Alex laughed, or as much as you could call his bark for displaying humor a laugh. /Funny you should you say 'she doesn't have any regeneration like me' that's exactly what she has. Moments of great stress, anger, or any other emotion can help trigger the first change. Strong emotion mixed with grievous injuries that could pose a threat to the wolf's life? A surefire way to trigger the first change, regardless of how late it is. Just take a look.\

Sephiroth turned around, and saw it happening. Saw limbs twisting in a way that seemed decidedly unnatural. There was that fur, the same shade of reddish brown as Aeris' hair, slowly spreading across her body. Most importantly however, Sephiroth could clearly see, that the wound in her chest was knitting closed with the same kind of speedy regeneration that had saved Sephiroth's life so many times.

With complete authority over the situation, Alex walked right past Sephiroth and tuned to create a horizontal barrier six and a half feet long between Sephiroth and Aeris. /Get out of here now, Silverfang. Of all the embellished stories your people have about my kind, most stem from a grain of truth. Phases of the moon have to do with shifts but don't demand them, our weakness to silver, and during the first change, they give into the inner wolf. Step away, now.\

Vincent didn't have to be told twice, Sephiroth could feel the vampire drawing away but he didn't. He watched as fur continued to grow, and green eyes transformed into golden yellow ones like Alex's. He was in charge, whatever happened, it was his job to experience whatever pain those who served him did.

Fur grew, bones, sinew and muscles twisted into new locations. Hands became paws, as the opposable thumb drifted back into the palm. The paws grew claws, the tail bone developed a more literal purpose, nose elongated, pupils contracted slightly. Finally the transformation was complete, the wolf that was Aeris slowly got to its (or her) feet, and growled at Sephiroth's its fur bushing out, it's ears pressed forward in attack.

The six-and-a-half foot silver barrier between them suddenly turned it's head from Sephiroth to Aeris. No sounds were uttered, though Sephiroth thought he was able to detect psychic communication, even if it wasn't much more then white noise, and then it happened. Aeris' ears twitched backwards, and her entire body drew back, trying to make herself as small as possible. Alex leaned forward, and Aeris slowly rubbed the top of her jaw against the bottom of Alex's. Alex turned around and cast a look that was far too human for a wolf to be giving him.

A look that said "Someone here knows what they're doing, and it isn't you, is it?" Then he turned his attention back to Aeris who was still trying to make herself as small as possible. /Get out of here Silver Fang. She recognizes me as her Alpha like this, you're nothing but a human to her right now, and one with Wyrm taint at that.\ Sephiroth paused for a moment, and then finally turned around and walked away. A wry smile slowly came to his face, maybe when it was all put together, it wasn't up to someone else. They were the ones who could decide their own destiny.

**OWAN: There. It's an update. Decided not to cliffhanger you guys, although some of you deserve it. If you still remember us after this long, then we're doing better than I thought. Haven't decided when to release the first deleted scenes/outtakes reel. We'll get to it eventually.**


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21

Don't know the reason, stayed here all season.

"How is Aeris?" That would be the first question a true Silverfang asked. /The Child of Gaia is fine Silverfang. She is asleep, though she will probably not return to her breed form till she wakes.\ The Vampire was crouched in a pose similar to the Silverfang's on an outcropping of rock that passed for a second floor in what was left of the City of the Ancients. Alex hated to see what had happened to the city, much of it had given way beneath countless years and the strain of time. However, it was still standing with two side buildings that made passable dens.

That was more then Alex was sure would be left of any human construction if it had been so long left uninhabited. "So in other words, we're done?" /From your morose point of view Vampire yes, this hunt is finished.\ The Silver Fang took one look at the vampire, and then took a look at Alex. "Vincent go get something to eat, well drink. You're no use to me if you're weak. Whatever the hell kind of animals there are out here, bring me back the body of one once you're done with it."

Alex snorted in contempt. /I'll bring you back one of my kills, Silverfang. Eating the body of an animal after it has had the blood drained from it by a vampire is bad luck. Not to mention that eating animals without blood is akin to eating most human dishes without the 'seasonings' you are so fond of.\

The Silverfang did not appear to be in the mood for supernatural politics. He took one look at Vincent, one look at Alex, and spoke very slowly. "Alex, Vincent, both of you, leave. I haven't eaten anything in three days. I am not in a very picky mood. Whichever of you brings me something edible first, I will consume. Go." The theory was that even a Black Spiral Dancer would have no choice but to kneel before a Silver Fang Elder. Alex was soon gone from his Alpha's presence.

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After consuming what looked like a mix between a rabbit and a lizard, Sephiroth felt slightly better. Slightly was the key word, because while Alex and Vincent where gone, he had checked on Aeris. He had kept his word when it came to his meal, Alex had come back first, and with an actual example before him, he had to agree with Alex. The bloodless remains of a monster that Vincent had brought him did look decidedly unappetizing. With a slightly fuller stomach (the city had an abundance of drinkable water) he now planned an assault on the next problem they faced.

"Alex, we have a problem?" /What kind of problem do you mean Silverfang? I can already think of an abundance of them.\ Sephiroth could as well, but it was time to deal with the simplest problems first. "Alex, I visited Aeris, who seems to have reverted to her human form, to check on her wounds. Do you realize what I found?" Alex's eyes had a look that Sephiroth was used to seeing in James eyes, a recognition of the problem, but not the fact that the problem was a problem. Which left Sephiroth with the unenviable task of explaining to Alex yet _another_ aspect of human society.

"Werewolf, take a moment to think what Aeris has lost." Thank god for auxiliary forces. Vincent somehow managed to put just the right tone in his voice that should make it clear what Sephiroth had been edging towards. A single ear quivered on Alex's face in equivalent to the human gesture with an eyebrow. /What did you expect Silverfang? The Child of Gaia's artificial coat was not dedicated to her the way mine is. What did you expect to happen? When she acquires a new artificial coat I can teach her the dedication ritual./

At least they were on the subject now, which was only a small blessing. At least Sephiroth had never found it necessary to talk with James about this kind of thing. Sephiroth took a very deep breath, as he planned how to explain this. "Alex, do you have any idea why I see this as a problem?" /Don't worry Silverfang, I located suitable materials to make sure that she will not suffer any ill effects because of the temperature.\

Maybe Sephiroth should just tell Alex to go bring him another one of whatever this thing he had brought him was. Let Aeris explain the problem to Alex personally. At least Vincent, who finally seemed to have regained his youth seemed to be enjoying the situation. "Alex... could you imagine how you look without fur?" /Yes, that' why I wear artificial coats when I lose mine in homid form.\

Still no luck, if only Mirri was here, she could have spelled this out without an ounce of hesitation. "Not in homid form. Just like you are, with no fur." Once again that twitch of the ear, Alex apparently was starting to question Sephiroth's sanity. /What does that have to do with anything?\ This was infinitely worse then trying to explain to James that he should salute with his right hand because it was military protocol, not because most people were right handed.

"Alex, you've spent a lot of time studying humans, right?" /Considerably more time then I give to any other race I don't prey on.\ Not such a reassuring answer. "Alex your father was huma... your father was a Cetra. Did he ever explain he importance of artificial coats?" /Artificial coats are necessary for protection of animals without fur against the elements.\ Apparently not.

How to proceed from here was a… mystery. "Werewolf what you don't realize is that Master is trying to get at something important to humans. You see, around a persons neck is something we vampires call is the 'zone' or the place that makes our blood boil. It's the place that vampires want to sink our teeth into. It's not just about nourishment, it's about continuation of the species. Now, around humans, it's not quite as simple, because it simply has to do with mating and personal survival doesn't come into it.

Also the 'zone' isn't located around the neck, it's between the legs. Humans, being civilized, wear high necked clothes to keep me from suddenly baring my fangs in public and draining dry every single person in sight. Humans do the same thing, to prevent each other from... when the... with the... in the... So in closing, among humans, artificial coats are necessary to prevent... because... think about it Alex... humans don't have seasons, they're always... understand?"

The miraculous thing was that Alex did. His ears instantly went up, flicked down, eyes widened slightly, narrowed, and then he cocked his head to look at Sephiroth. /Oh… oh... You should have just said so.\ Sephiroth took one long look at Alex, and then at Vincent and then he turned away from both of them who had been giving him the exact same look. "It's called self control, it's what makes humans different from animals."

/You seem to have it backwards Silver Fang, if humans could control themselves they wouldn't find it necessary to indulge themselves in every solstice, season and shape of the moon. This is of course in agreement with the fact that humans are unable to control their desires for other pleasures.\ Sephiroth had better things to do then sit there and let a vampire and wolf who could take human shape tell him how perverse his tastes were. "You two do something about this problem. I'm going to sleep."

------------------------

As Aeris woke up she clutched the blankets around her tightly, chiefly because she didn't have anything else to keep her warm. She was almost instantly aware that someone was watching her even if she couldn't see him. "Vincent?" A group of shadows on the floor materialized into the vampire over the course of a few seconds. Vincent's eyes looked Aeris up and down, however he did so with none of what she would have seen in Melkore's eyes under similar circumstances.

Once he was finished he coughed slightly before speaking. "Master will be glad to see that you are well, take this." Vincent calmly removed the red coat he was wearing, and tossed it to Aeris. The coat was hopelessly too large on Aeris, but with her back to Vincent and still clinging to the blankets she slipped it over her body and closed all of the buttons. The thing trailed down to Vincent's knees, meaning it went all the way to Aeris' feet. It smelled of old blood and grave soil, but at least it was warm and covered her whole body(although she did have to hold the top closed).

She turned back around and managed to smile at Vincent. "Thanks." "It is not needed, Master told me to deal with this problem, and at least to a slight extent it has now been dealt with. And I have lost nothing." As Vincent spoke, shadows suddenly joined together about him creating a coat just like the one he had given to Aeris, except that it was in black.

Aeris suddenly gripped her single garment with fierce determination, afraid that it might give way into the material it had been crafted from. It was obvious as soon as she took a moment to think about it. Vincent had taken in many various outfits to suit his outward appearance, how else could this be so easily possible if they where not made from something as malleable as shadow?

Vincent saw the fear and moved to allay it. "Don't worry, though my knowledge of what I can do is limited by my experience, I am a very fast learner. When mixed with Vitae, blood, shadow proves quite substantial even when exposed to sunlight. At the moment such garments are always red, and I've had limited success retaining those without Vitae. Like this one, such garments are always black. I hope eventually to be able to have them be as malleable in color as shape, but that isn't what matters. What matters is that garment should last the ages, and should... well, look."

Aeris looked down and was noticeably relieved. The red coat had "melted" or perhaps "melded" was the right word, around her. It was now in the shape of the pink dress she generally wore, except that it was in red and had long sleeves. It was more than that, it was everything beneath it; if it wasn't for the ethereal feel to it, she wouldn't have been able to tell the difference. "Thank you again."

Vincent moved with a slow grace as he went from sitting to standing. "Don't. I'm simply serving my master." There was something odd that Aeris saw in Vincent's eyes as he said that, and it triggered something in her. "You should be thanked anyway. Your far more courteous then most men would be in your situation." Once again there was that look in Vincent's red eyes, and he slowly drew close to Aeris.

"I am not a man. I a vampire." As Vincent spoke, suddenly shadows everywhere in the room began to creep forward with slow deliberateness. Vincent's eyes were transfixed on the back of Aeris' neck, her hair fanned out covering it since it was no longer concocted in a single braid, but the look in Vincent's eyes said he could see through it all the same. "I am above such petty things as uncontrollable desires. I am perfection, nourishment, reproduction, joy, can all be infused in a single liquid. For, as it has been said, 'The Blood is the Life'.

Forget the idea of one body against another in the throes of passion. Imagine if you could, instead, the cold of the dead against your warm flesh, before it extracts your exquisitely warm blood." Candles were snuffed out by an invisible force, light could not penetrate this deep shadow that now totally surrounded her, Vincent's voice echoed from all angles.

"You look almost just like her, it would be so easy. You wouldn't feel pain; only the pleasure of complete and total surrender as you fall under my sway and leave all worries behind. Ask James, I have taken his blood and he experiences feelings similar enough even without my influence. I have even experienced it myself with Mirri, even as I took her blood she was the one defiling me and not the other way around. But then, as is frequent in nature, the female is the more dangerous of the species.

But that was Mirri, you are an entirely different dish. A mimic, lacking completely in the poison that excretes from every single one of Mirri's pores. You attempt to survive by blending in, looking like something far more fearsome then you actually are. In reality, you're nothing more then a very scared little girl, and no one can hide secrets from the dead. Come to me now girl, let me ease all your fears."

Shivers ran up Aeris' spine as a cold, gloved hand slowly pushed her hair out of the way, and then a single finger traced its way vertically along her neck. "You look just like her, I bet your blood will even taste the same." Then it was over. The shadows retreated; Vincent was once again seated before her, as he had been when she had first awakened. Aeris tried to speak but words failed her. "Be grateful that one part of me has not changed in the transformation from human to vampire, I am still a blood stained knight, but a knight none the less.

You do look so like her, that I will refrain. I will tolerate in my body no pure female blood other then hers. You are pure in mind in ways that Mirri is not. Pray to whatever forces you believe in that you do not lose that purity. It is foolish in the extreme to search for a star that has long ago burnt out, but every night now that I once again am above the living I search for that star.

Good night, or good day, the choice is yours to make." With that, Vincent once again reduced himself to shadows, which quickly made there way out of the room and did not return. Aeris' breathing was ragged but slowly returned to normal.

------------------------

Sephiroth slowly entered the room, he had gone to sleep not long after Vincent and Alex had exchanged shifts, so that Vincent could guard Sephiroth as he slept. It was morning of the fourth day since they left the Temple of the Ancients, and Sephiroth knew what he had to do before they could continue. "Aeris, why?" "Because I wanted to be like you for once."

Sephiroth cast aside his usual emotionless tone; emotion seemed to work well with Aeris. Most people said that the cold fury Sephiroth normally showed was more frightening then any fire, but then most people had not seen Sephiroth truly angry. "No you didn't, you wanted to be a hero." Sephiroth threw the words in Aeris face with all the derision she deserved for her actions. "Sometimes, Aeris, you make me wonder if you don't have less common sense in your head then James does, at least he can follow orders."

He continued speaking, cutting off an attempt for her to get in edgewise. "Aeris, Jenova is a master at one strategy, divide and conquer. You played right into her hands, and if we had been a little slower, you would be dead. Dead!" "I'm sorry." It was a low pathetic whimper, but it elicited no sympathy from Sephiroth. "Don't be sorry, learn something from it! Stop trying to be some glorious hero who can expire in a bright flash of light, because believe me, you won't succeed.

A bright flash of light will only lead to darkness, heroes come and go, till they are all relegated to legend. Monsters are forever. As you told me 'we work together because we can do things that way that we can't do alone.' There's no place for a loose cannon among the people fighting for me, and you, Aeris, are a loose cannon. Do you know why?

I trust James even though he was created to kill for Shinra. I trust Mirri even though she has a history of treachery. I trust Alex implicitly regardless of how he'll kill someone at the slightest sign of Jenova corruption, even if he only imagines it. I trust Niro, even though he holds back cards from everyone. I've trust Vincent even though I don't have a clue in hell who he used to be and how he got the way he is. I trust Melkore even though he's with us only because he can't afford to be against us.

But I can't trust you, do you know why? Because you refuse to follow a pattern, you refuse to allow me to understand you. If I can't understand you, then I can't trust you. So start explaining yourself. Aeris, leaving aside why you did this, what were you trying to do?"

Aeris was properly cowed, and Sephiroth actually had to strain slightly to make sure he heard her correctly. "Sephiroth, it's because of the White Materia. It's the only thing my mother gave me, and I thought it would be powerful. It was. It was strong enough, but I wasn't strong enough to use it to summon Holy." "Holy?" "Holy."

"What is Holy?" "If I understood the Planet correctly, Holy is sort of the opposite to Meteor. It would destroy all threats to the Planet. I thought if I could summon Holy, it would do away with Jenova." White Materia, Sephiroth wanted to believe that it was as simple as Aeris said it was, but thinking about what Alex could do with his "Gifts" made him doubt it.

"ALL threats to the Planet? Congratulations Aeris, you just tried to outdo Jenova by destroying all human life on the Planet." Aeris looked stunned, hurt. Sephiroth had no time for empathy: pain was a good teacher. "Not like that, Sephiroth..." "How do you know? Even if you're right, and it wouldn't target humans, it'd still target most of our little party of the damned! James, Mirri, Niro, Vincent, Melkore… me." "Sephiroth…"

"Stop. Don't say anything, just listen. There have been two groups that bore the name Seraphim. The first was my vanguard in the Wutai war. They were the best SOLDIER had to offer. Mirri can tell you the rest, she was one of them. The other is this little band of misfits, monsters, and twits. The first band of Seraphim? There were eight to begin with, including myself. Now there are six. In the ten years since their formation, only two members have died. One was my best friend, my second in command. He played the hero, tried to save Nibelhiem, and he was killed. The other was a man more loyal to the company than to his commander. He played the fool, and tried to kill me. Heroes and fools, their motives may differ, but they share the same fate. I'll have neither among the new Seraphim. You want to help, and you have high hopes, but ambition without skill is like a sword without a hilt. It may give you an edge, but you're definitely going to bleed. Personally, I'd prefer you stayed with us, but if you do, you'll have to start working."

"Working?" "Start training, start talking, start meshing. start understanding. Fear of the people you work with is a luxury you can't afford any more, understand? War is easiest to fight when you're fighting people who are ready to die for what they believe in, like Shinra, because there's an agreement of goals. They want to die for their cause, and I want to kill them for it.

Jenova won't die for what she believes in, she'll kill for it, so we have to be able to do so as well. If we're going to protect what we have, we can't be ready to die for it, we have to be ready to kill for it. I take volunteers into the Seraphim, I don't take martyrs, do you understand?" There was a small sparkle in Aeris' eyes, a sparkle that Sephiroth had seen before, but it was more controlled then before.

"I think I do Sephiroth." "Good then, Alex has agreed to help you with your first lessons." There, that was done, now Sephiroth could rest for a while. "Sephiroth, thank you." "Thank me by excelling, you're superhuman now, too. I expect you to act like it."

------------------------

For a short time after that nothing happened. Of course there was a minor storm when the rest of the group finally caught up with the first half. To be exact, Mirri was somewhat put out by the explanation, and even more so by the way Melkore reacted to the story.

"So I get dragged along for the being shot at, fighting monsters, and life and death escapes, but not for the naked chicks. Is there no justice in the universe?" It was at that point that Mirri held Melkore underwater for a while. After that, Niro once again provided taxi service... this time to Mirri and Aeris back to Bone Village in the south. Thanks to a lunar harp that James, Mirri, and Melkore had taken their time to locate but was now solidly in Mirri's possession, travel in and out of the forest was no more difficult then any place else.

Mirri seemed slightly more agreeable when they got back and Aeris was once again dressed in something that was made of earthly fabric instead of blood and shadows. She even said she was sorry to Melkore, before she held him under for another 10 seconds. However, it was clearly not meant to last. Sephiroth knew it, Mirri could feel it in her bones, Alex in his tail, James in his ears, Vincent in his blood, and Niro behind his glasses.

------------------------

They where all gathered together finally, and Vincent asked the question that he had been holding back for so long. "Master, who was that child?" Master drew in a very deep breath, and slowly answered. "I need to explain this to all of you, because you need to know what will, and what has, happened. Five years ago , I was assigned on a mission to Nibelhiem. It should have been a routine mission, even more boring then routine, nothing but some pathetic monsters to deal with, but it didn't turn out that way. I went there, and we did some recon.

Before we even got there, one of the guards died. That only left me, my second in command, and one pathetic guard, who flunked out of SOLDIER but came from this town. We went into the reactor, found the problem and we fixed it, but something came up. Inside the reactor we found that Shinra was making monsters by dosing people with massive amounts of mako, they might have been people once, but with wave after wave of mako... Never seeing mako showers on normal human beings, you can still probably guess the results."

Mirri didn't even try to bite back language that no one cared to tell her was not in keeping with her gender. Melkore in fact was busy saying the same thing only slightly more elegantly. Vincent of course went with his traditional curse for all purpose situations. "Vlad Tepes in a forest of the impaled." Aeris was too shocked to say anything, James and Alex were oblivious (one by lack of knowledge, the other by being James) to what the results would be.

If Niro had anything to say he kept it to himself. Master nodded to their reactions and continued his story. "Yes, that about sums it up. I looked at it, and I started to wonder if that was how I had been created. Strife told me that there was a library in the bottom of the Shinra mansion, so I went and read them. They told me how I was created after the first few books, but I kept reading them. I was possessed, because I had to know everything. I had to know as much about Jenova as I could, it was too much, and it wasn't enough. At least I learned how I had been created.

I was human to start with, up until about three months after my conception. After that, my mother, whose name I still don't know, she started getting mako and Jenova cell injections directly into her womb, designed to affect me. The books make it very clear that in the end, those treatments killed her, shortly after I was born." Before Vincent could stop himself he jumped into the pause in Master's account.

"Dr. Levrae. She was a Dr. Levrae." Vincent regretted it, but it had to be said. It would have been just like Hojo to not even mention her name in his writing. Sadly this instantly caused every set of eyes present to go from Master to Vincent. "I knew her." It was enough, everyone instantly turned their attention back to Master.

"Anyway, when I finally was able to stop reading, it was too late. Because I finally knew what had happened, I was finally strong enough to shut Jenova out of my mind, at least when she wasn't right next to me. Since she couldn't have me, she chose someone else. However pathetic Strife was on his own, acting as an avatar of Jenova he was able to match me, at least back then. Before I even got out of the mansion, the entire town had been burned to ashes."

Besides the mansion, that infernal mansion, damn Hojo. It had been so close five years ago, things might have gone better if Master had found him then. Between the two of them they could have dealt with anything.

That mansion seemed destined to stand forever, as a testament to Shinra, but Vincent would make sure to burn it to the ground. "I ran to the mako reactor, and I faced Strife. I cut the catwalk underneath us, and we both fell into the reactor. I thought he died, but I was wrong. After a year, I was able to finally able to climb back into the world. I slowly made my way back to Midgar, and that's where I freed James before linking up with Mirri. Strife is incredibly dangerous, all of you understand that. He killed my last second in command, and he's damn near my equal, at least when Jenova's supporting him. He almost killed Aeris, and he doubtlessly has the Black Materia now."

"Which would be really scary… if he could use it." This time it was James' turn as the center of attention, of course, unlike Vincent he seemed happy with that position. "What? Don't you remember the book Seph? The Black Materia can only be used where Jenova first arrived and where she created it. That's why there aren't any huge rocks in the sky right now, they can't use it."

This was one of those few times that Vincent had seen his master surprised, but he clearly was. "James... I think... you're right." James beamed with pride. "Of course I am, I read the book. If the White Materia can only been used here, where the Cetra's power is greatest, the Black can probably only be used where Jenova's is, like where she first arrived. Strife got wounded by Vincent, so he probably doesn't have that much of a lead on us. If we start out we could probably catch up with him, or maybe even get there before him. If it took Aeris a lot of chanting and concentration and whatnot to use the White Materia, the same is probably true of the Black. At the very least we can interrupt him while he's trying to use it."

"James, you just earned a scratch behind the ears." If Vincent had been in James shoes he would have wanted a lot more then an ear scratch for a piece of logic like that.

------------------------

"Sephiroth?" "Yes Aeris?" "Your second in command... was his first name Zack?" "Yes, why do you ask?" "I dated a SOLDIER named Zack, he said he worked directly for General Sephiroth. That sword Cloud Strife has, it's just like Zack's." "Strife took it from Zack after he killed him." "Oh..." "What?" "It hurts to know. But thank you... because it would be worse not to know anything at all." "He died a hero." "I thought you had no patience for heroes?" "True, but facts have no place in a eulogy." "Sephiroth!"

FN: If I was trying to tell this story through movies, this would be where the first one would end. "Let's hunt some Jenova!" and all that. So give yourselves a pat ont he back, if your still reading this far, your about halfway through give or take.

End Chapter

OWAN: Not sure when we'll update again, but I can tell you all that we'll be here for a while. We've got a sequel planned, after all, so we can't fall too far behind, now can we? Oh, and, someone else came up with that last name for Lucrecia. I can't remember who off the top of my head. If you're one of my readers, just let me know and I can change it, if you want. If whoever's idea it was is not one of my readers, but one of my readers knows who it was, please let me know.


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22: I can make you see the beauty of a new sun or I can be the source of your desperation, I could be every nasty thing, you ever dreamt a man could be

FN: Please insert disc 2. Sorry, couldn't resist. For those of you are interested in the coming attractions, I'm currently busy drawing Twilight out into a trilogy, but before I start posting the sequel, we're going to post "Music of the Twilight" which will be Phantom of the Opera told with FF7 characters, for the most part. And now the feature presentation.

"So Mirri, this is snow? Really weird." James couldn't find any words besides weird for snow. The concept of it had been rather thoroughly explained to him when he was younger (that is to say something like a month ago when he had just come out of the womb and yet to meet Seph or Mirri), but it was another thing to experience it personally. They where all experiencing it up close and personal at this point. They had gone north for about a week now, and the group was currently tramping through ankle deep snow. There was another thing that James instantly realized about snow, how much Alex liked it.

Not to say he was rolling around in it like a dog (**particularly** not like a dog) but it was clear that Alex was glad to have snow underfoot. At least it was clear when you could see him, with his white fur the only easy way to tell where Alex was standing happened to be by his eyes. That, or trace the flakes of snow that occasionally landed on Alex, which were visible only because you could see the flake stop falling.

All in all Alex was about as easy to see in snow as Vincent was when he was in the shadows, Alex was doubtlessly in his element. Which in all frankness, James wasn't, while his sneakers were wonderful for dealing with almost any other type of terrain, they just didn't cut it in snow. They could find traction in sand, slide almost effortlessly across metal (which let James move faster then he would otherwise), but they couldn't disperse his weight enough to prevent them from sinking in through the snow.

This led to a rather large amount of snow building up in James' footwear. Watching Vincent walk across the snow, his footfalls somehow not breaking the surface reminded James that someday he would have to ask Vincent to teach him that. "It's snow all right James." James would have taken off his shoes to shake the snow out of them, but there was no place to put his feet while he did so, so he would just end up with more snow next to his feet. "So Mirri, does this kind of thing happen often?"

James and Mirri were leading the group forward, his job was to be a reconnaissance officer, so he was reconnaisenceing, or whatever the appropriate word was. "Not really James. Of the four seasons you almost exclusively see snow only in one of them, winter. The problem is that this continent is so far north that the snow never melts." Mirri's shoes had a slightly higher ridge than James' which was why the snow wasn't bothering her the way it was James.

"What I wonder is why people live this far north. Isn't there enough room for them to live elsewhere?" James managed to strike an awkward pose with one foot in the air and kick some of the snow off it. "Well James, its like this. The town of Icicle Village is occupied by two kinds of people. Those who where born there, and have basically lived there their entire lives, so they don't feel like moving south. Those people are generally there because of the second group of people. They're people rich enough that they can afford private airship flights out here to relax and get away from everyone else."

Humans could be so hard to understand as Alex has pointed out on more than one occasion. "So your saying that people are rich enough that they can afford to go to a place that's so unfriendly that normal people would never go there, and convince themselves they're having a good time." "That's about the long and short of it James." "Mirri, is it just me or do you ever get the feeling that your the only intelligent person in the world." "I get that all the time."

So James wasn't alone in that, good. If James and Mirri could agree on something then what were the odds they were wrong? James and Mirri both agreed that they agreed on something, then they were clearly right. If someone felt like disagreeing with them, then clearly they weren't right, right?

"So Mirri, out of curiosity did you have a weird vision quest thing when we entered into the Temple of the Ancients?" It sort of was a precarious situation, but James felt fairly safe talking to Mirri about it. Mirri seemed to have similar ideas. "I dreamed, that I was in Corel while it was being burned to the ground." Jeez, what would it be like to watch while everything that made you what you are got burned to the ground? Okay, it was probably sort of like watching Seph kill all those scientists who made James. Except that, umm... well, you know, you would care about each other...

"So how was it Mirri?" Apparently Mirri's feelings were more in the same area as James' then he would have thought. "Basically what it broke down to was me killing all of them. I even took my time with it. How about you James, what did you have happen to you? Vincent had this incredibly weird dream where he killed us all." That was the kind of thing that would happen, to Vincent. He did seem to have a bad habit of imagining the worst possibilities.

"Oh, that's too bad, umm... did he tell you how?" Okay, so clearly James was technically crossing a bit of a line. If Vincent wanted to subconsciously kill them... okay maybe he wasn't crossing a line. "We got impaled on the same pike throughout the heart, I was on top." Mirri seemed to have a great deal of pleasure explaining this for some reason. "Oh. That was nice of him. Considering all the much more nasty things you can do with an impaling pike. At least through the heart is quick and painless."

"Yep. So, what was your spiritual quest like?" What was the best way to explain this to Mirri? Another guy who looked sort of like him, but dressed differently than him and could show up anywhere when you weren't looking for him. Of course the antagonist of the tale was a guy who was taller then Sephiroth, could hold James' wires with his bare hands and survive several hundred foot drops, and didn't talk, he also needed to tell Mirri in a way that she would understand about the giant airship they where fighting on top of except that it was apparently made of rubber instead of metal. Most importantly, James had to explain all of the things that he got taught by the first guy to Mirri.

"Knowing you James it was probably yarn, catnip, rubber mice, and balls that dinged when you pawed at them." James must have been thinking to himself longer then he thought he had been. "Yeah, that was it, more or less." It was probably the first time that James had ever intentionally lied to Mirri, but he was sure Saint Valentine would have forgiven it for him, after all he was the one having dreams about impaling them both on the same pole.

----

"Master, you need to see this, you as well Aeris." The group had walked for most of the day. and Aeris was about ready to collapse on a warm bed. For once the difficulty of the walk through snow and cold had apparently gotten to Sephiroth as well. "Vincent what is it?" Vincent, being dead, sadly had no concept for what hypothermia was.

On second thought, Vincent clearly knew what hypothermia was, he was experiencing it all the time, or at least in places where the air was measured in positive double digits. "Master, it is of grave importance. I found it by accident, but it concerns both of you. It deals with important information about our foes Master, and as for you Aeris... you need to see it." "Vincent?" "Don't ask questions, just come with me, and Aeris, I'd rather you hate me for making you do this, then hate yourself for having a choice about it."

As Vincent spoke, he removed his glasses and something odd happened with his eyes. Aeris couldn't look away, she couldn't blink, and she couldn't step away. Slowly Vincent drew backwards into the empty house he had pointed them towards Sephiroth following and Aeris who had no choice but to follow Vincent to whatever fate he was dragging her towards.

-----

Niro was having a relatively good day. After the long journey he was finally grabbing a good rest in the snow, in Alex's shape. Regardless of what anyone might tell you about white clothing not doing a good job turning sunlight into heat, it clearly didn't transfer to white fur. Alex had been gracious enough to give Niro his form after their "argument" in Cosmo, and if Niro preferred his panther for combat Alex's wolf had a lot to say for anything involving low temperatures.

James was currently busy patrolling the south side of town while Niro was keeping his eyes on the north. Vincent, Aeris and Sephiroth were currently inside an abandoned building doing, something, of some kind of importance. Mirri and Melkore where the lucky two who got to cop out and finally grab a warm bed to lie in. Granted Niro really couldn't complain about the current situation he was in. Alex had been built for cold weather survival, lying in a snowbank at 3 F for him was the equivalent of sunbathing at 30 C.

James of course would have complained about the situation if he felt it would achieve anything, or had someone who was there to listen to him, but as he lacked either he just bore his job with stoic (if you could ever use that word to describe James) countenance. "He's the one, that's him! Prepare to fire!" That came from the south, which obviously meant James was in trouble. There simply were not two ways about this kind of thing, when things could go wrong, they would go very wrong if they went wrong to James.

Niro slowly stood up, and began to pad over to where James was, at least the snow did a nice job muffling his non-retractable claws. Armed with telescopic eyesight Niro could see the problem from all the way across the village. James who had just been minding his own business (this was how most problems involving him got started) was now having weapons pointed at him by four different people. Three Shinra guards, and one female Turk, hardly long odds for James once he dispensed with the guards.

Of course James being James wasn't preparing to get rid of the guards, he was raising his hands in the air like a good little kitten. Not only was he raising his hands, he was trying to talk his way out of the issue. Talking instead of fighting was a nice strategy when it worked for you, Sephiroth for example was very, very, adept at using it. Much of this success however, came from the fact that just about no-one really _wanted _to fight Sephiroth if they could avoid it. On top of that, James had an unfortunate tendency to create a rather large gap between what message he intended to deliver, and what message actually came out of his mouth.

"Hey I promise you guys whatever you think I did, I didn't do it! Unless it was the reactors, Shinra HQ, the boat, Gongaga, or Rocket Town, those I did, but the last one was self defense!" There you go. The blond female Turk seemed to be in a particularly bad mood, she was almost foaming at the mouth. "You monster, you killed him!" "Who? I haven't killed that many people! Ask Seph about it, he'll back me up!" 

Ohh yeah, forget digging your own grave, James was making his own mausoleum complete with a fountain, flowers, and a tombstone about a mile high. Niro could have covered the distance to James fairly quickly if James needed his help, but at the moment that didn't look likely. For all James' lack at speech, he was not all that fing bad at fighting. Thus, James was either an evil mastermind who was fooling the entire world with his pathetic child act, or James was just James.

Niro had a very firm belief in the second one, because if James was a good actor it was only because he was deceiving himself as well. "Shut up you monster! You killed Tseng!" Oh so that's what the problem was, now let's watch James try to talk his way out of it, it was almost a game for Niro. Niro just hopped deeply that Mirri would never explain the Fifth Amendment to James, this kind of entertainment was hard to get for free.

"No I didn't! I've killed a lot of people, I've killed a lot of Shinra personnel, but only guards and SOLDIERS, I haven't killed any Turks. " If James dug any deeper, then he was going to vanish into the snow, but then that might not be such a bad thing. "I don't care what you say! Tseng vanished after that incident in Rocket Town. He went in through the second story window, and everyone saw you exit from the same area. For a Turk that's more then enough proof that you're guilty, prepare for the punishment!"

Most sane people would have opted for the five second head start rather then to keep talking, but no one said James was sane. "But I've seen him alive since Rocket Town! He was in the Temple of the Ancients, retrieving the Black Materia for Jenova!" "Fire." Now that James was fighting for his life, he actually did much better then when he was talking. Because as the abilities that were necessary for survival had a way of becoming ingrained, James was pretty damn good at dodging bullets.

He was also moving with a speed that probably came from some cheetah in James' family tree. He had, Niro noted with a certain amount of surprise, finally found his solution to the problem of getting snow in his shoes. James was apparently moving so fast as the bullets trailed after him that his feet didn't break through the snow. Sadly he lacked much of anywhere to run to, and ended up ducking between two buildings in a makeshift alley. "After him, we've got him cornered now!" Niro was tempted to intercede at this point, James did seem to be in trouble.

However, as soon as Niro began to make his way forward into the town (keeping low to the ground, to let his fur keep him out of sight) James once again showed off how he was different from an ordinary first class SOLDIER. Despite discovering himself in a dead end, he easily managed to keep his head on his shoulders, and jump onto the roof of a nearby two story building. He perched on the edge of a roof like a weather vane and smiled down at the group who aimed guns at him.

"Now, that you're not shooting, could you please calm down for a moment? Because as you can see, I very clearly don't want to hurt you, otherwise you'd all be in pieces right now." The female Turk was not amused by James' words. "He doesn't have any weapons, shoot him off of there!" The guards were happy to oblige. Though none of the bullets actually hit James before the guns ran dry, they did destroy significant portions of the roof.

The lack of these portions caused the snow that had built up on the roof to slide off it. A great quantity of snow slid off the roof, taking James Firecat with it and the entire mess deposited itself on the ground directly before the four Shinra personnel. James, always able to make the best of a bad situation, had managed to land on top of the pile of snow instead of it landing on top of him. Thus while guns were reloaded, he flipped over. Then James was off like a shot racing out of the alley, with plenty of bullets in hot pursuit.

James was very good at dodging bullets, he kinked, weaved, danced, ducked, and all other manor of dignity impairing movements to avoid automatic weapon fire. It would have been humorous to the extreme except for two things, one was the deadly intent with which those people perused him, and the other was that it actually worked.

James must have some kind of natural magnetic force in his body that made bullets not want to hit him, because he was managing to dodge while he was looking in the opposite direction from where the bullets where being fired. James who wasn't the type to make the same mistake twice in a row (he would make the same mistake twice, and up if you considered annoying Sephiroth a mistake, but he made other mistakes in between them) was careful not to get caught in another alley, instead he turned so he could run through the center of the town itself.

This strategy at least gave him the advantage of using his better legs to help keep him ahead of his pursuers. As they ran, a fair amount of commotion was started up by the sound of gunfire. Most people just watched from the sidelines or stuck their heads out windows, saw what was going on and pulled their heads back in, not in a mood for interfering with people in Shinra Blue. No one acted one way or another till James finally tripped over a rock that must have been buried in the snow.

After finally skidding to the a stop he lay still in the snow and his four pursuers slowly advanced on him though he remained unmoving. "We've got him!" Niro was close enough that he could have acted if he wanted to. He easily could have killed one of the guards, and possibly knocked his body into the other two, but that might be enough to save James.

However, for James help took a shape much closer and more effective then a single white wolf who was currently trying to look like a clump of snow. It was in the shape of someone who had been one of the first to start observing the situation, and now acted. "No, I have you."

The figure stepped forward, and in the blink of an eye three Shinra guards were lying in the snow, their blood turning white snow red, blades lodged in their skulls. The female Turk turned around, and a moment later a white gloved fist slammed into her chest. She let out a gasp and dropped to her knees, before a roundhouse kick dropped her on her back in the snow.

"Understand this, if you weren't so pathetic, I would have punched you with my right hand." As Mirri spoke she adjusted her right hand so that the blades loaded into the glove where ready to be fired into the female Turk's face. "You wouldn't die instantly, because I know where all the vital organs are, and that blow would have missed them. What it would have done was caused you a very greet deal of pain, and given you internal bleeding. Then I would have launched my blades into your chest. Because your enhanced that wouldn't have killed you right out, but left you too weak to do anything but slowly die. Understand, Elena?"

Elena (the female Turk whose name Niro now remembered) attempted to get back up, and Mirri delivered another kick to her, this one catching her in the side of her chest sending her rolling across the snow. "I asked if you understood?" Niro made a mental note never to get on Mirri's bad side, because she was enjoying this, he could tell. Like a cat batting a mouse around between its paws till it finally decided to crush its skull.

"It's important that you do, because war is suppose to be about men slaughtering each other because they feel offended over something trivial. It's bad enough that women, girls, boys, and children get dragged into the affair and are killed by grown men. There are several things in the world that I can't stand, men using physical force or numbers to control a woman is at the top of the list. Right below it however, is watching children kill each other over something pointless. Understand?"

Another kick to the face, as Elena tried to get back on her legs and she went back in the snow. That blow seemed to have broken her nose but Mirri either didn't notice, or really care. "You need to feel helpless and weak because that's what you are like this. Your just a little girl being abused by Shinra, and believe me, I hate them a lot more for it then I hate you. Because Shinra is not on your side, it wasn't when I first worked for them, and it isn't now, and it never will be.

Shinra uses people like tools, and when you're old and worn out you get tossed aside to have a new tool inserted into your place to do your job. That's all they you are to them Elena, nothing but a piece of metal to be used, and abused on a whim. So what you need to understand, is that since Shinra is not on your side, if you aren't on your side, then nobody is. And when nobody is on your side, anybody can push you around for fun like I am now.

My parents understood that, they understood how you dealt with people like Shinra, bend but don't break, let them think you're on their side the way they let you think they're on yours. Compromise, draw lines in blood, and every day ask something else from them. Never open rebellion, never open revolt, no one could face Shinra in fair combat and survive, so don't play fair. Make them accommodate your needs, show them you are reasonable, and they would rather fight you with words then with guns.

Shinra isn't invincible, but if you wish to be more then a martyr you have to work from the inside out. Force them to take a step back, then another, then another, and then another, until eventually they walk off a cliff. You can't kill Shinra easily, but it's too clumsy to defend itself, like a cow against a cat.

My parents passed that intelligence onto me, and believe me, intelligence doesn't make friends. My parents were hated in Corel and called traitors for what they did. Well eventually Corel got what was coming to them, my parents died, I left, and less then a year later the town was incinerated for insurrection. Do you understand that?"

Niro winced inwardly, now Mirri was working the lower body placing one of her feet on Elena's chest, clearly intending to press down on the right place to break a rib, Hell hath no furry like Mirri. "Intelligent people are either hated for doing the right thing in the 'wrong' way, or loved for doing the wrong thing in the 'right' way.

Nobody ever gets praised for being the one who suggests that they must retreat to a more defensible position. Nobody calls you a hero when you fight from the shadows because against the odds you face it is the only way you win. You have so much intelligence, and it really pisses me off to see you waste it."

Mirri twisted her foot like a dagger being driven farther into a wound and Elena tried to scream in pain but no words left her mouth. "You should be thankful that you ran into James first, he has never been hurt. He doesn't like to kill, and when he has to do it he does so as quickly and painlessly as possible. He doesn't even really like to fight, at least not when there's nothing he can achieve other then killing. You have every benefit you could have asked for in him, and you still fucked it up.

Now, you're dealing with me, and I'm an entirely different breed. As I mentioned before, I like to draw lines made of blood and make people cross them, preferably their own blood. I think just killing random people who work for Shinra is a fine way to make a statement and a military victory. It helps people realize that so long they aren't helping us, they're supporting the system. This, Elena, is a war without neutrality, if you elect to make no choice, then you have made a choice, and I intend to make people realize it's the wrong one.

I'd love to drive down the streets of Upper Midgar with automatic weapons killing every single person I see, because I know stuff like that works. Never underestimate the power of blind violence against random people as a way to make a point and do some damage. When we blow up a reactor Shinra can replace it in six months, when I kill an office worker it takes Shinra 25 years to replace them.

James can be hurt, both in body and in mind, but it's not easy to do. That lack of pain makes him forgiving. I've already been scarred up very badly by Shinra's policies, and intend to return the favor. I like to kill, and I like to do it slow.

I like agony, I adore pain, I find rapture in ruptured blood vessels. I can't resist breaking down those who think themselves invincible, because one bullet is all it takes to make the playing field level between the strongest man and weakest women in the world. You're not worth my time, and I want you to live, so I'm going to let you go now.

Your going to be laid up for about 24 hours till your rib and nose heal thanks your enhancements, so don't bother trying to follow us. What you should do is go back to Midgar, vanish into the city and find something that you enjoy doing. It's either that or go back with your tail between your legs, and tell them how this happened. All the way back to Midgar be thankful that neither James nor I feel it is necessary to kill you, this time.

If I ever catch you trying to hurt innocent people because Shinra tells you to again, I'll make this feel like a lover's embrace. Believe me when I say that there is nothing you can do to save Shinra, either from itself or from us. I'll keep drawing lines in blood, and keep bleeding Shinra till it's nothing but a withered husk. Then, when it's so weak that it has trouble standing, I'll give it a friendly push, and listen to it scream all the way down with a smile on my face. I suggest you start listening to Reno, he may be an ass but he knows the score. Come on James, we have places to go."

James finally drew his head out of the snow where he had buried it as if it would somehow save him. He took a moment to shake snow out of his hat and hair, before realizing that the only effective way to do this would be to take off his hat. This being James rather then someone else, he decided to do just that, and found greater success.

If anyone felt like commenting on James' ears, a look at what Mirri had done to a Turk made them think better of it. Once James was finally done with this process he gave Mirri a smile and a relieved sigh. "Thanks Mirri, I was sort of worried about that." Mirri took one look at the huge crowd that had gathered, and gave them something very different from the small smile she had given James.

"What are you all standing around for? Help that wounded women into some shelter before she dies of exposure! Or do I have to do it myself while you stand around and watch her die?" In the following flurry of activity Niro had no trouble getting out of town unnoticed. I am Mirri, hear me roar.

---

As the odd machine ran through the tapes, both Sephiroth and Aeris watched completely engrossed in what they saw. As he watched, Sephiroth's face slowly transformed from his normally impartial glare to a snarl of rage. There was no image to accompany the final gunshot whose sound had been recorded, and then there was only blackness before the two of them.

Aeris cried, and Sephiroth, to his surprise, found himself comforting her. "It's okay, it's just one more crime that Hojo will have to pay for when I plunge his soul into the depths of hell." Aeris for her part allowed herself to be comforted. "That was my father, Dr. Gaste, and I don't even know his first name." The third occupant of the room who had not bothered to watch the tapes with them (he had already seen them all the way through once) did his part to comfort Aeris as well.

"His first name was Julius." Both Sephiroth and Aeris spun around at that announcement as if they had forgotten that Vincent was in the room. "How do you know?" Sephiroth focused all his attention on Vincent instantly and Aeris managed to dry her tears for a moment to do the same. Vincent for his part looked as if he had forgotten that Sephiroth and Aeris where in the room as much as they had forgotten him. He looked like he wanted nothing so much as to vanish back into the shadows he had come from and he definitely didn't want to answer.

"Vincent, tell your master how you know Dr. Gaste's first name!" It was the first time Sephiroth had out and out ordered Vincent to do something because of the tie that he held over him, but it was necessary. Vincent fidgeted, fought against an invisible force, and finally succumbed. "I worked for him." Sephiroth's rage vanished into simple desire. "When?" Once again Vincent fought a loosing struggle with himself not to answer. "27 years ago, project Deus Ex Ego, I was his bodyguard in Nibelhiem."

Sephiroth was instantly seized by an animal ferocity, he was over the couch he had been sitting on with Aeris in a moment, and charged right at Vincent. In a moment Sephiroth had both hands' around Vincent's neck. The chokehold was inspired more by blind rage than any kind of sensible thought, that was obvious. Sephiroth gripped Vincent's throat as tightly as possible, attempting to close but not break his airway. As Vincent was dead, breathing was not high on his list of necessities.

Aeris manage to get over her shock fast enough to let out a startled cry at what she saw. "SEPHIROTH!" At hearing his name Sephiroth turned around, though madness still danced in his eyes. He threw Vincent across the room, and pointed an accusing finger at him as Vincent lay crumpled where landed. "Bastard Turk! You worked with Dr. Hojo to make me what I am today, why should I spare your life any more then his?" Vincent curled inward, trying to vanish back into shadows but the spot where he had landed was brightly lit by the still functioning electrical lights of the abandoned house.

"Then kill me and get it over with, I live and die by your desire." "Don't tempt me." Aeris interposed herself between Sephiroth and helpless Vincent, managing to ask the one question that she could successfully articulate. "Why?" Sephiroth was teetering on the blink of a bottomless abyss of anger. "Project, Deus Ex Ego, it mean 'God from the self' it's the name of the project that was based in Nibelhiem to create a superior being, I'm the result. I swore I'd kill every single person who worked on it." "Including my father?"

Sephiroth blinked, his rage put back to wherever it came from with all the certainty of him sheathing Masamune. Reverence took its place. "Not your father. Never Dr. Gaste." From where he lay as a crumpled forlorn heap on the ground Vincent echoed Sephiroth statements. "He had a soul and a brain, a rare combination." Sephiroth's previous malice now gone, he nodded in Vincent's direction. "He was the best. Get out of my sight Vincent; you have a new lease on whatever life you have for now."

Vincent slowly stood back up heading for the door, he was gone as soon as soon as he reached the shelter of a patch of shadows. Then Sephiroth slowly turned to Aeris, pain in his eyes. "To inspire others to follow, one must lead. Since he was your father you disserve to know something about my past. Dr. Gaste was in charge of Project Deus Ex Ego because he was in charge of Shinra Science Department. However, the books that I've read made it quit clear that Dr. Hojo came up with the idea that led to my creation.

Gaste okayed it, but as the project went on, particularly after my birth, he had growing opposition to the course it was taking. However, positions come and go in Shinra according to the President's favor, I had been Hojo's idea, and even if my mother was dead, I was born alive. Hojo had succeeded on his first try and that gave Hojo a lot of power in the President's eyes.

He was sure that the only way to make me a full success was to completely control my life. I'm not quite sure of what Gaste's goal was for me, I've never seen any books written by him and I was very young at the time. However, from what I can tell, Gaste felt that the project should involve me being like anyone else, and observing instead of controlling my behavior.

Hojo got his way, but Gaste did everything he could for me. Though Hojo might be my father by blood and have come up with the idea, Doctor Gaste was the closest thing I've ever had to a parent." These words were spoken with more, and purer emotion than anything else Sephiroth had said in a very long time.

"Eventually Dr. Gaste left because Hojo had been pressuring the President for more control over me and saying that Gaste was interfering with his works, I was only four at the time." That fell right into place with what Mirri had said back in Costal Del Sol, that fell perfectly into place. "I can't remember that much of him, but I promise myself that I will never forget what I have. I'll remember it till I die.

I remember one thing very strongly. Dr. Gaste taught me how to play chess when I was young, and I was always very good at the game, because it's a game of war. He was never very good, for the same reason, Dr. Gaste couldn't stand what the game meant. That you could throw away the lives of those who fought for you without a thought, if it meant achieving victory.

He always played defensively trying to keep all of his pieces safe at once, I understood the game and played offensively, and I always won, picking his defenses apart one piece at a time, he tried to protect them all and he failed. Bishop for a rook, rook for a queen, pawn for a knight, if both sides have the exact same forces then everyone has to pay a price, just pay a lesser one than your foes do.

I remember Dr. Gaste sitting across the chessboard from me after one game, crying. Not because he lost, but because I had won. Because even from such a young age, I had become irreversibly inundated with the spirit of war." Sephiroth turned his eyes from Aeris to the door that he had every intention to use. "Your father believed in doing the best with even a horrible situation. Even in the depths of hell he managed to add light to my life, you would do him proud."

End Chapter


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter 23: One day more.

"Can you feel it?" From the look on her face the Child of Gaia clearly couldn't. Alex tried not to snarl in anger, this wasn't at all what his own training had been like. His fur (what little he had left) instantly bristled in irritation at assuming this would be as easy for her as it had been for him, there were great differences between them.

Alex had been born for this, bred for this, desired this since the day he was old enough to understand it. The Child of Gaia had known about the change for less than a year, and had lived for far longer without knowing anything about it. The Child of Gaia knew nothing about the Garou, it was akin to teaching a newborn cub first to open his eyes and then how to tell things by what he saw.

Except it was far more difficult then that. By the time Alex was able to open his eyes he had already been able to name things by their scent. It was thus a simple matter of learning to match sight with smell, the Child of Gaia needed to be taught the names themselves. Nor did Alex like the fact that he had to do this teaching in homid form. Gnosis was always the easiest to touch Lupus form, but the teacher should be in the same shape as the student.

His father had always shifted to lupus for Alex, so Alex would shift to homid for the Child of Gaia. Hopefully she would at least be able to shift controllably soon enough. Once she had that he could start teaching her how to use her gifts (whatever they where, Alex knew most of the Red Talon and Silver Fang gifts, a couple of the other tribes, all of the Get of Fenris ones, but none of the Children of Gaia) and how to Umbra walk. But that was eating the chocobo before you caught it.

Alex was normally comfortable enough in homid form, but tonight was an exception. It was cold, Alex wandered how the humans could possible stand it to live some place so cold to them? Of course, as a wolf this far north was where his tribe had once dwelled and he was still suited to Gaia's fluctuations. Humans were not, Alex's dedicated clothing was made for the Canyon he and his parents called home, this far north, it left MUCH to be desired.

Alex pushed away all thoughts of discomfort, damn it all, Alex was good at ignoring pain, but this cold still got to him, and the Child of Gaia as well. "I can't feel anything Alex." Alex gnashed his teeth in anger, or possibly because he was shivering. They were doing this outside for a reason! "Try again Child of Gaia!" She was trying, Alex would give her that, however, the ability to try didn't mean anything if there was no hope of success.

"Child of Gaia, this should not be so difficult, you aren't even touching your gnosis or rage, you're just touching the silver light. This shouldn't be difficult, look up at the moon, and tell me what you feel!" She looked up, the cold was probably getting to her even worse then it was to Alex, but at least she didn't complain about that. "I don't feel anything, Alex."

Alex bit back a few choice oaths. If she couldn't feel anything then they would have to try again later. "Fine, Child of Gaia, forget about it. I thought that this would be easiest for you during the full moon, transformations are always easiest during the full moon. However if I'm trying to get you to recognize you own strength perhaps we should try during the quarter moon. You are a Theurge, you identify most with the quarter moon. We will retire for the night, Child of Gaia."

Alex finally allowed himself another shiver and a growl of displeasure at the situation. "Alex..." Alex stopped gripping his body with both hands in a futile attempt to slightly warm himself and turned his attention back to the Child of Gaia. "Yes Child of Gaia?" "Why don't you ever call any of us by our names?" You have to choose your battles and where you fought them, Alex distinctly wished he didn't have to fight one out in the snow. "I'll explain as we walk back, Child of Gaia."

To a reach a place where they had a chance of success, the two had walked a significant distance away from the village, it would take them long enough to walk back without Alex explaining first. Alex also swore that he would never again say that his true coat was somewhat of a disadvantage to him in Cosmo, it was just fine for this place. A quick battle took place between pride and desire. Unfortunately, while Pride was fighting Desire, Prudence and Impatience snuck up on Pride and beat him with big sticks. Alex gave a mental shrug and began to shift.

A few moments later, he once again had his coat, and no longer felt the biting cold, maybe his comfort would inspire the Child of Gaia to want this for herself with more fervor. /It's simple. Though we may be the last of our kind, we were once quite numerous. All Garou where divided into different tribes, and those tribes further divided into packs. Packs never, hear me Child of Gaia, NEVER contained members who where of a different Tribe.

If you have not noticed, this group contains representatives of many Tribes even if we are the only Garou. The Black Fury, a fierce female who sees herself as a guardian of nature and the weak. The Bone Gnawer who will go wherever he feels, and is tied down only by friendship. The Silver Fang who is a leader born and bred and shows it with every movement. You, Child of Gaia, who seek to bring peace to all of Gaia and its inhabitants.

The Shapeshifter who puts Shadow Lords to shame when it comes to deception. I will say for him however that he fights a great deal better then Shadow Lords do. The Glasswalker, who were once called the Warders of Men because they happen to have a special appreciation for human science.

They also claim they where once called "The Rock Sliders" because they understood that things fell downward while all other Garou just fought, but that is another story entirely.

Of course, we also have the Vampire, A Tzimisce rather then a Gangrel, I am starting to think, though he hides his native soil well. Know that neither of those things is a statement of praise, he does not hide it well enough to escape me. The smell of Gaia's soil emanates quite strongly from the heel of his boots, which is why he can walk in sunlight and cross water.

A Tzimisce is of course even more dangerous then a Gangrel, at least Gangrels fight with claws, the only thing worse then Tzimisce is a Follower of Set. More then a few Tzimisce have been known for being able to manipulate my four legged kin, something that no Garou worthy of the name should ever except.

Now my point, since we have members from so many different Tribe, and a vampire, we are clearly not a pack. Thus it would be most unacceptable and offensive, not to mention an insult to your honor to refer to you by your names without being specifically invited to do so. When different Tribes interact certain custom dictates it to be proper for us to address them by their Tribe, and if more than one is present then by there Tribe, Auspice, that's what phase of the moon they where born under, and Breed.

The Child of Gaia was suitably shocked by this information. "You're saying that we should be calling you Get of Fenris instead of Alex and that we've been insulting you every time we haven't?" Alex scoffed into the snow and gave his previously planned answer. /When dealing with humans I find that it is prudent never to assume intentional insult, when simple ignorance will do for an explanation.\

------------------------

The group struck out early in the morning again. Though the sun shone, it provided little warmth for Aeris. Thankfully, the white fur lined winter coat that she was wearing on top of her normal jacket and vest did bring her some comfort. Her coat was only different in size from the one that Mirri was currently wearing on top of her other clothing. James had somehow managed to find a heavy cloak in the shade of red that matched the rest of his outfit, and it was currently resting on top of his jacket.

Interestingly Alex had needed no convincing to outfit himself with something heavier then his normal green tunic, in fact he had been rather surprised at Aeris' question. /Do you think I can't tell which way the wind blows? If we are to proceed we must be fully armed against the elements.\ Of course, Alex was also breaking the trail for the party currently, his large paw prints leaving an easy to follow trail.

Melkore had thrown on the heaviest coat he could find, no outdoorsman he. Vincent, Sephiroth and Niro however had neglected to find any new clothing for the trek farther ahead. Vincent because the phrase "body heat" or "Hypothermia" were somewhat meaningless to someone who was dead, Niro had insisted that the cold didn't bother him, and Sephiroth hadn't cared to give any answer.

If Melkore looked ridiculous in his incredibly heavy coat, at least Aeris couldn't hear his teeth chattering the way hers were at the moment. Something very heavy, black, and incredibly warm suddenly descended on Aeris' shoulders and swept around her an entire body bringing blessed relief from the cold. She felt it, and slowly realized that it was Sephiroth's military outfit. She turned around, Sephiroth was standing behind her, slipping a black t-shirt on to replace his cloak. "Thank you."

She hoped he would attribute her rising color to the cold: he was _cut_, and the shirt was thin enough that she could still see that quite plainly. She had known he was strong, but she'd also known that that could be attributed to the SOLDIER enhancements, she hadn't expected it to be so evident on his body. She stifled a "meep" and turned around, beginning to walk again.

"Don't thank me, you need it a lot more then I do. I didn't get a sword driven through my chest just so you could die of exposure." That almost sounded like a joke, but Sephiroth's voice didn't show the slightest hint of humor. Maybe, he was right, she was finally starting to mesh.

------------------------

Progress only got more and more difficult as time passed. By what Sephiroth judged as noon they had come to the foot of a huge mountain, and had to begun to climb it. It was a slow process, and everyone had to help everyone. James for his part became the party's official marker for knowing which way to proceed.

His bright red clothing made him stand out far better then anyone in the snow and mist that covered the mountain, and the sight of him worked like a red flag. Vincent and Niro hung back helping in any way that they could, as both of them could ascend without much trouble. Mirri was leading the way, leaving blades embedded in the rock to provide the rest of the group with necessary handholds.

James followed directly after her, simultaneously making him close to Mirri, and allowing the rest of the group to keep their eyes on him showing them the way. The group made progress, and if the cold was harsh it was neither deadly nor unbearable. At least until nature opened up on them with both barrels. Howling winds and freezing sleet attacked the group, small pieces of ice like little shards from the ninth circle of hell broke painfully against any unprotected skin. Sephiroth broke from his place in line and caught up with Mirri and James in a few leaps before coming to rest on an outcropping just above them. "Mirri, we have to stop: my troops are freezing, and James' hat has developed icicles. Also, Melkore won't stop bitching and I don't feel like dealing with him right now."

Mirri stopped on a plateau, and in the snow it was easy to lose sight of her. A beacon of bright crimson shown through however, and no one had any trouble seeing James even in the storm. While James was busy being a visual representation of hope, Mirri had already got to work.

She wasn't exactly the best equipped person for the situation, but she had managed to make some progress trying to dig through a mound of snow between them and entering the mountain. When Alex arrived he got to work with a body much more suited to the task, soon the entire group managed to pass through the opening Alex had dug. Once they where inside, conditions were noticeably improved. The passage was apparently pretty wide, even if it was only about six feet high.

Through various processes members of the group began to remove the sleet and snow that had landed on them. Niro transformed, and there were two "Alex's" in the small passage. If the cold didn't bother Niro, he apparently liked the warmth that Alex's shape brought to such situations. "Alex, Niro you two make sure nothing else gets in, I'll go see how far this thing goes..." Alex glared at Niro, and his fur bristled, clearly not enjoying this experience of finding a living looking glass.

/As you say, Silver Fang. We should be fine so long as the snow does not block the air into this place. Niro, we sleep in shifts to make sure one of us is on hand to dig out if it starts to get covered in snow.\ Niro flicked his ears, but as he wasn't Alex, he couldn't answer in anything other then a "yip" that Alex clearly understood well enough.

"Aeris come with me, the farther in we get, the warmer we get, and it's far too easy for normal humans to die in their sleep if they aren't kept warm." Mirri cast a look at Sephiroth that had a connotation James had no hope of understanding. Melkore did similarly a few moments later, though his was slightly more evident in meaning to anyone other than James. Sephiroth quelled them both with a glare of his own, and one that James could understand.

It said, "This is no time for making jokes, shut up and follow orders!" The two reacted to it the same way James did whenever he got it, they shut up and followed orders.

---- --------------------

Sephiroth looked around and everyway he looked he saw walls closing in on him. But he'd rather look at those walls than what he knew he would see if he wasn't looking at them, what he would see if he turned around. So instead he just stared at the walls like a disobedient child, not that it helped. He didn't need to see it again, he had seen what had happened in this house once before and hearing it again made it play before his minds eye again.

"Success, Gaste, that's the difference between us, you have your head in the clouds and play around with ideals, while I actually work. But I knew that however prudish you were, if I waited long enough I would find success." "Hojo what are you doing here?" "I was starting to lose faith Gaste. I was starting to wonder how someone like you could so misuse your intelligence, but deep down I knew it would come to this. You would steal my test subject 'rescue her from my clutches' and the results, like any reaction were predictable. It is such a pity for you that you failed to understand just how far money can reach."

"Hojo, you can't be serious." "I always am Gaste, unlike you. So where are you going to run this time? When I leave this place I'm taking your bitch and her pup with me." "That's my daughter!" "To you quite possibly, if you've deluded yourself to thinking so. But don't you wonder why Shinra didn't care when one of there top scientists and a one of a kind lab specimens vanished? They didn't because I told them not to. I let you live your pathetic little lives, because you have now created something that this Planet has never seen before, a hybrid human Cetra! Now that she is old enough to survive if separated from her mother, this triumph of science over all obstacles will now serve my purposes."

"What purposes?" "You can't guess Gaste?" "I'd kill myself before letting you do such a thing!" "Feel free to Gaste, Shinra no longer needs your brain or your body, your usefulness to them has passed. I just need them. They are the keys to opening the door to paradise." "I could never allow them to be used in such a manner!" "Yes, but Dr. Gaste I could. In fact, my mistress is quite insistent upon it. So as a last act of charity to the man who taught me much, however useless most of it was, I will save you the cost of a bullet." Sephiroth forced himself to turn around, everything was large, but then he knew that was because he was only eight years old. He watched, Hojo wasn't a very good shot but at point blank range against a target frozen with fear and disbelief he didn't need to be.

Dr. Julius Gaste, a man who had only wanted to make the world a better place, died a death as violent as it was quick and hopefully painless. The bullet slammed through his skull, through his brain and out the other side. An inhuman shriek of pain rose from the throat of Aeris' mother, and the bolt of lightening summoned from her hands knocked Hojo into a wall of the house. A guard drew his pistol and fired it.

Aeris' mother dropped blood streaming from her chest. Hojo got back up, and raced over his gun in hand, and reached into his lab coat for another pulling out an odd shaped gun. "You idiot! You just damaged the subject!" Hojo shot Aeris' mother with the odd shaped gun, which turned out to be a tranquilizer. "The tranquilizer will slow her blood flow, so she should survive. But it doesn't matter to you." Sephiroth watched as Hojo shoved the gun that had killed Dr. Gaste under the jaw of the guard who had shot Aeris' mother, and pulled the trigger.

That was what made it unhallowed. That was the true desecration. The fact that Dr. Gaste was not alone on the floor of the small house, he died with some no name guard, and Hojo hadn't cared about either of them. Hojo's eyes came to dwell on Aeris now. "What are you standing around for? Can't you handle a child? Fine, I will do it myself!" Hojo loaded his second gun, and shot Aeris with a tranquilizer dart as well.

"And for Shinra's sake, someone shoot that camera!" A guard fired, and that was all there was that had been recorded. Sephiroth watched as one of the guards slung Aeris over his shoulder and two more grabbed her mother. Sephiroth watched and felt Masamune dragging down on his shoulders, it was too heavy for him to lift while he was this young.

But he didn't need Masamune to kill. He carefully unclipped the strap and let it fall to the floor freeing him from its encumbrance and reached for his magic. Sephiroth had been called a deamon child by more than one lab attendant or nurse who had seen what he could do without lifting a finger or uttering a word if he concentrated. Flames danced around him, he felt them race up and down his body. Sephiroth was on fire, but he didn't care, some doctor had told him about it once, something about how since every part of his body was inundated with Jenova cells, his skin was fireproof. Mostly. This time his skin was turning black, but of course he couldn't feel any pain. He was Sephiroth, pain was something that happened to other people.

The black skin continued to burn, and after a moment, it finally turned into ash and fell right off of Sephiroth. At least most of the ash fell off of him. On his hands as the black ash kept burning, it began to mesh together, turning into gloves. But that young skin needed to go, what was underneath it was what mattered, Sephiroth took one step forward and sneezed slightly. The ash fell to his feet and then encircled them, turning into boots.

The ash flew upwards and clung to what little hair he had, and burned till it went from black to white, and then to silver. It burned against Sephiroth's hair like two pieces of metal being fused together, and it only ended when Sephiroth had hair down to feet. The ash clung to every exposed part of his body, turning into clothing. Underneath the ash like a field having been given new life by fire, new skin grew, lots and lot of skin. After that one step forward, his bones suddenly realized that they weren't large enough and weren't strong enough. So they like any other part of Sephiroth, they didn't complain, they acted to rectify the problem.

In another step forward it was done, Sephiroth had completely shed his first layer of skin like and like a snake discovered that he was larger for the process. Unlike a snake Sephiroth had grown at least double his height in one shedding, he was now his current age, his hair only going down to his waist. He brought a boot down hard on Masamune's pommel, and the sword and sheath flipped upwards through the air. He carefully grabbed its hilt with one hand, its sheath with the other. He pulled down on the hilt with one hand, and up on the sheath with the other, allowing Masamune's naked blade to shine in what light there was. He smiled at Hojo and the guards. "Welcome to my hell."

Flames surrounded Sephiroth, flames shot out in all directions with explosives force determined to burn the entire would to ash. Sephiroth's eyes shot open too late to do anything about what he had done in his sleep. The section of the cave that he and Aeris had chosen had once been as cramped as the rest of this cursed place. Now it was decidedly un-cramped, as solid rock had dissolved into nothingness in all directions from where Sephiroth had slept in a 10 foot sphere.

If Aeris hadn't been sleeping right next to him, she would have reduced to ash so quickly she wouldn't have even known it. Sephiroth felt sweat roll down his face, sweat that had nothing to do with the residual heat that his spell had generated.

------------------------

James and Mirri where curled in one interconnected bundle. James' tail was wrapped around Mirri's neck, his head leaning against Mirri's legs. It was a simple arrangement designed for maxim comfort from minimal space. Mirri woke up from her dream and smiled.

It was a dream she had been having often since the Temple of the Ancients, she relived her vision. She could dream that dream for the rest of her life and never grow tired of it, because it was fun. It was fun and it was justice, to destroy the people who had decimated her family's name and land. "War."

Mirri smiled as she said the word, she could never quite get enough of that word. It summed up human stupidity, that a single word like "war" could be used to explain the hell on earth that it created. As Mirri spoke, James began to stir, red limbs stretching this way and that to signify his own removal from the world of dreams. Mirri personally couldn't wait till she made her dreams reality, destroying Shinra would be wonderful.

"It's fun isn't it?" James twisted now that he had finished stretching, so that his head could transfer itself from looking away from Mirri's legs to looking at Mirri's eyes. "Were you having good dreams too Mirri?" Mirri nodded as she spoke, flexing her gloves as she did before combat. "Yes, I was just thinking of how beautiful this war against Shinra is."

James smiled, such bright white teeth, such sharp pointed canines for such an innocent face. "I can't say I'd call it beautiful, but neither can I say I'm not having fun." Mirri slowly rose to a half crouch, while James remained lying at her feet, his arms crossed over his chest, like a ready animal.

They said that cheetahs used to be used to hunt, that they would be carried on the backs of Chocobos to the hunting grounds. Then they would be released and with a sudden burst of speed they would take down their prey before being taken back to their homes.

Maybe, James was like that, he should be taken to his target, and then released to act so he didn't wear himself out on the way there. You didn't try to teach a cheetah why or how he hunted, you just pointed him out and let him go. Mirri submitted to the unspoken wish James' body language desired. She used her left hand to push James' hat aside slightly and scratched his left ear. James purred as her gloved hand came into contact with the tips of his ears.

"My cheetah." James couldn't have a chance of understanding what Mirri had said. However, James had never been the type who allowed simple lack of background knowledge stop him from speaking before, he saw no reason to do so now. "My lady!"

Mirri continued to scratch James' ear her hand slowly going up and down the entire length of his ear. James' purr continued in time with Mirri's hand moments. "Please allow me to introduce myself, I'm a lady of wealth and taste." Mirri's' voice wasn't particularly suited to the words, but James didn't care in the least. Between the two of them, the rest of the world didn't exist.

"I've been around for a long, long, year, stole many a man's soul and faith." James continued to purr, and when he spoke, his voice was a purr. "If it's your war Mirri, then it's my war." Mirri continued to scratch James' ear, and James continued to purr as Mirri continued to sing. "But what's troubling you is the nature of my game."

Those words hardly suited the situation but James didn't care. "War..." Mirri had never heard the word spoken like that. It was like a kitten's hiss. A small pathetic thing having not yet grown into its ears, paws or eyes, it had precious little in the way of real skin.

Still it stood confidently before a trained attack dog, and hissed its battle cry. It hissed with all the strength of a lion roar, and it did not know fear. Tremble, leaders of Shinra, before this small kitten. Tremble, before the pacifistic killer.

------------------------

Aeris, as Sephiroth exted, tried to put the best face on the situation. "Don't worry Sephiroth, it was just a nightmare, everyone has them." Sephiroth cast a stern glare at her, he wasn't a child who needed coddling, he knew his weakness as much as he knew his own strength. "No it isn't Aeris. I've talked with Mirri about it, and I trust her for giving me an accurate physiological diagnosis more then I would trust any other doctor. Mainly because I believe that you can't trust someone to be able to cure something until you've seem them cause it. Mirri explained that it's a holdover from my time growing up in Shinra's labs, 'claustrophobia', or fear of enclosed spaces."

Neither of them cared to add the comment that after what Sephiroth had done, the space they currently occupied no longer qualified as "enclosed" in any real sense. "So was that the reason, that night I found you in a tree?" In for a gil coin, in for a stack of them, Sephiroth thought bleakly. "Yes, I couldn't stand it inside, so I went outside. That's what Mirri suggested I do in any situation. It's worst in places I'm not familiar with, in Mirri's house it wasn't so bad. Most of the time it doesn't truly effect me, but when I get tired, it gets harder to tell the difference between any enclosed place and those labs."

"So have you ever done something like this before?" Sephiroth might as well tell her, if you expected others to follow you had to lead. "Yes. Eventually I started sleeping outside because it happened to me in tents sometimes, particularly after battles when I was tired. Mirri told me that it's a fairly normal psychological condition, at least as such things go, and that I have a fairly mild case of it.

Other people drive themselves insane if they're forced to into enclosed spaces even while they're wide awake. It isn't documented in my Shinra file, Mirri always kept it under her hat as a favor to me and to the army. She knows about it and now you do, but don't tell the others."

Aeris was trying, but it was clear from the look in her eyes that she didn't understand. "Why? If they knew we could better plan things ahead so you wouldn't wind up in situations like this." The glare was almost as hard as Masamune. "Because, leadership is half of what you do, and half of how you do it.

Because of my Jenova talents, I can do things that normal people couldn't understand, much less imitate. I've dodged bullets, survived 'lethal' wounds and many other things. I was invincible, I was never defeated, and because of that my men were stronger, because they believed in that invincibility. I wasn't invincible then, and I'm not now, if anything I was worse then because I had Jenova's voice in my mind when I was alone.

But I didn't let people know that, because if they did, it would make them doubt me, and that could get them killed. If they were afraid, because they knew they were following an insane man, then more people would have died. So everyone including Shinra agreed to look the other way so that fewer people would die. Those who saw the effects of my Jenova induced schizophrenia called them strokes of genius.

We all closed our eyes to what they meant because there was a war to win. I think Zack even tried to put a good face on it, since he saw it most often. 'The different between insanity and genius is measured only in success' he liked to tell me. Zack was wrong, I won the war, but that didn't make any of it go away." Sephiroth curled his hand into a fist. Too late to stop now, no reason not to explain every single thing in his world to her.

"I won the war, and what followed made me wish to be on the battlefield night after night. I was paraded around like a prize animal who had learned how to do some amazing trick. I was pampered like some kind of prize racehorse who was suddenly too old to race any more, but was still deserving of respect. I think there was even talk among the Shinra higher ups on the possibility of... never mind that's a situation even I don't want to think about.

No one knew what to do with me; there weren't any more wars to fight because Shinra now had complete control of the world. Still at the same time they couldn't dispense with my services because I was a hero to all of Midgar. In victory I had made myself useless, war had become antique to the world. So I just drifted in a meaningless, empty life, from one day to another. Each day Jenova's voice got worse because I wasn't drowning its desire for death by killing people in battle.

I kept training, because it was the closest I could come to being able to kill. Day after day, night after night, endless unsated bloodlust. I spent as little time as possible with people because whenever I talked with someone, in the corner of my mind I saw all the possible ways I could kill them. It only went away after Nibelhiem, because I understood what Jenova was. That was a small blessing. But believe me when I say this, there can be no peace between us and Jenova, one will destroy the other, and I don't intend to die." Aeris nodded, and Sephiroth smiled, perhaps she was making progress.

------------------------

The group made progress through the snow slowly but steadily. The storm had ended, and even if there was more snow on the ground, they just had to cut through it. Most monsters apparently were nocturnal up here, because they encountered few of them, until it came. They heard it before they saw it, and they all knew (even James) that it meant Shinra was coming.

------------------------

Stealth was somewhat of a unknown concept to this vehicle. The huge shadow it cast on the ground below it was always a harbinger of its arrival. The greatest airship in the world, built by Dr. Melkore Morningstar, it was the ultimate symbol of Shinra's power. It allowed them to strike anywhere, at any time, no fortified position could hope to stand against it.

The Valar class airship, though it had no name other then the Valar, because no other airships in that class had been built. It was completed just barely before the war ended, and thus it had never been truly needed. One Valar was enough to strike fear into the hearts of those who saw it.

The thing used mako power, but it also had solar battery which could supply significant power. With a full tank, it could stay in flight for over a week. The Valar was a monstrous thing, it dwarfed all other airships, and nothing in the world was like it. The thing was known for being the President's personal craft, and it was never deployed unless it was stocked with first class SOLDIERS, SOLDIERS who could level entire cities or towns.

The Valar made its way north with deliberate speed. President Shinra, Hojo, and others where were gathered on the front of the Valar's deck. Rufus Shinra watched was he saw the world move beneath him. "Hojo, are sure you're working in the right direction?" Hojo smiled, for a different reason then Rufus as he looked down at the world.

"Of course, President Shinra. We'll soon be able to reach what has so long eluded us. To the north, the land of ice, soon we will be able to find the true power of the Cetra." Rufus glared down at the snow, wishing that they could arrive sooner. "Wonderful. Soon Shinra will be more powerful then my father could ever imagine."

------------------------

"All of you, stay back." Vincent heard the words, but he didn't understand them. Looking out at the huge icy valley, they could see that child Cloud Strife holding the black materia in his hands. The cliffs sloped down, and the child stood in the middle of them. Master glared down, his entire body ready to act. "This entire valley is unstable, that ice is incredibly thin, too thin. Two people is bad enough, three is sure to cause it to collapse. I'm going to go out there and kill him, you all stay back. That means you, Vincent!"

A direct order, Vincent couldn't go against it. Thus, Vincent could only stay back and watch what happened, he didn't even say anything. He just stood there as Master and Cloud both drew their blades, as Master's foe dropped the black materia. The two met in a clash of blades, neither one gaining an advantage over the other. The horrific sound of a huge airship as it began to descend.

The thing sent powerful blasts of air in all directions, including down into the valley where Master and his foe fought. Just as Master had said, the ice was too thin, those blasts of winds did it. The ice cracked, shattered, and the two of them fell. The weakly healed scab over the Planet's wound was torn open.

Master plunged into the depths of the Lifestream itself. The world shattered for Vincent, he didn't even feel it as a pair of hands grabbed him by the neck.

End Chapter

**OWAN: Updates will continue to be sporadic: theater season has begun again. Tell your friends about our work, that's the best way to show support. That, and reviewing, anyway. Don't be surprised if it's a while before any further updates, I don't feel like doing much of anything anymore.**


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter 24: I fought the law, and the law won.

FN: First all of I have a few things to say. I'd like to appologize for the slow rate of updates. I would also like to thank all of you who are still reading, because I happen to remeber when all I had was an Alphasmart, some free time, and a bong full of catnip, I really love you guys, sorry that's the roman blue talking, I really appreciate you guys. So that makes it just that much harder to post this, much like chapter 17, I just don't feel like I've done as much with this chapter as I could have, in fact if I thought hard I might have been able to do something better. Don't worry the next chapter is going to make it all good.

**OWAN: God, his spelling is horrendous. You see what I go through.**

Mirri looked at the situation. It was hopeless beyond all tactical doctrine. So when you got right down to it, there was only one thing to follow, Mirri's motto. "Audacity, always audacity." "F you Shinra!" There they were, standing on the cusp of a giant pulsating green pool of Lifestream. There was nowhere to run, they were trapped between the Valar and a huge neon-green cesspool.

This was probably going to be it for them, Aeris and Vincent shocked into a stupor by Sephiroth's fall. Alex and Niro looking all too ready to expire in a blaze of pyrotechnic glory. Melkore was hesitantly tuning his guitar, twisting the knob back and forth. James and Mirri however, were both serenity personified, one of them by nature, and the other by need.

Even cursing, Mirri managed to sound considerably less then flustered. "Surrender? Don't make me laugh." Rufus glared at her, but Mirri was quite sure he would look considerably less stoic if he didn't have his score of bodyguards. "You don't have any other choice. If you refuse, we'll slaughter you like sheep." Like sheep he said? Mirri calmly leaned over to James and whispered a few words.

James pressed down on his gloves, similar to how Mirri had done many times, and a few moments later he had strands of wire between his hands. "President Shinra, you forget one of the more important rules of war. Having nothing to lose is a powerful advantage. I remember having a similar conversation with your father, and he barely got out of it with his life. You may be able to kill us but you won't survive it yourself, and I think you want to live more then you want to kill us. But then, let's have a demonstration, I find they work very well with James."

At the word "James" he acted. The lashed out in a flicker of light. The SOLDIER who had been standing directly between Mirri and Rufus suddenly found himself tossed aside with several small cuts along almost every inch of his body. If he hadn't been a first class SOLDIER the sheer volume of wounds probably would have killed him.

As soon as James acted, Mirri leapt at Rufus, driving him to the ground with her blades at his throat. Before Rufus could speak, Mirri silenced him by tracing a hand along the left side of his chest over his heart. It would have taken a true idiot to believe the gesture was even remotely affectionate.

"Go ahead Mr. President, tell them to shoot. Don't you know the story about what female SOLDIERs wear under their armor? I like to keep tradition, and no amount of training will make my body hard enough to stop armor-piercing ammunition. So if you tell your men to shoot me, those powerful mako bullets will rip me to shreds… right before they do the same to you."

Everyone stayed perfectly still waiting to see what would happen next. Eventually Rufus spoke after managing to regain his self composure. "You realize you'll never get out of this alive." Mirri's voice didn't waver in the slightest. "Oh I have no intention of getting out of this alive President Shirna. Nobody gets out of SOLDIER alive, but we all have a vested interest in making our deaths our far off as possible. So here is the deal, pay attention and listen well, and remember if you disagree with my conditions, it's your life that ends.

We are going to surrender, and we are going to be treated like human beings who have surrendered fighting in a war. We are going to be escorted onto that ship, and confined, and we'll give up all of our weapons, except for James and myself. Me, because I'm going to be staying with you to make sure that you fulfill my conditions understand?" Rufus was nodding madly, the man had no spine, stomach, guts, or other resistance granting organs of any kind.

"James is going to keep his weapons because he has to look after Aeris. The boys can look after themselves, but frankly, I don't trust your men as far as I can throw them. James look after Aeris and make sure none of them touch her before you die." James nodded and saluted Mirri even as she lay on top of Rufus Shinra, a soldier ready to fulfill his mission, Mirri trusted that James would perform expertly.

"You are going to take us to Junon Mr. President, not to Midgar as I'm sure you want to. We are going to be tried in Junon by a military court, because we are all SOLDIERs appointed by General Sephiroth, before his, well, we'll call what we all just saw 'death' for simplicity's sake. You are going to give us all military trials, which will be scrupulously fair and short to find us all guilty of treason. The sentence will be death.

Then there will be no long, showy executions, no gas chambers, no fatal injections, no electric chairs, no hangings, no beheadings, no torturing. The day after we are found guilty, we will be marched in a single file line to a suitable location with our backs to the sea, and seven first class SOLDIERs will step forward. Seven guns will put to seven heads, and at the command, all seven of us will fall backwards into our watery graves with a smoking hole in each of our heads. An end befitting SOLDIERs."

For a few moments, there was complete and total silence. "Your insane! You're wanted terrorists, and I'm going to make you all beg me to kill you!" A single blade landed in the snow very close to Rufus. "You can't do that Mr. President, because I'm already willing to die. Now, you have two choices Mr. President, and you determine how we act. If you call us terrorists one more time, then we will start acing like them.

We will give up all value of our lives, and fight to the last man, woman, or miscellaneous! You will die, a great many of your men will die, and the Shinra company will be swallowed into a black hole as your subordinates fight each other. Don't think they won't. The Shinra company will fall to dust, the world will be consumed in flames, humanity will be reduced to barbarianism for centuries to come.

I'm almost tempted to kill you just for that Mr. President. Because I love chaos, and your death would spread it like a wildfire. Your other choice is to call us prisoners of war, and treat us as such. We were all made part of the army by Sephiroth, so we will have a military trial and execution. We will not be made animals, with our trials being a circus; we will die as human beings. Because Mr. President, one thing that has never changed in the world, the army looks after it own."

Niro handed over his gun, as did Melkore reluctantly hand over Sylvia. James kept close to Aeris as she gave up her staff, and Vincent didn't resist or even move as his guns were removed from him. Alex, of course had no weapons to be removed from him. Thus was the group lead onto the Valar, Mirri leading the way like a queen acceding to her throne.

----

Aeris had managed to get her despair at the possibility of Sephiroth's death down and get a reasonable sense of the situation. Once she had a grasp of the situation, she instantly envied James who clearly had no such thing, no desire to achieve one, and no inner drive that would make him gain one out of habit. He was currently lying on the floor of the single room that the two of them had in the Valar. The other's had been sent to the ships brig, but Aeris and James had a modicum more of comfort.

James didn't at all mind the prospect of sharing a bed with Mirri, but with Aeris he had a job to do, and would do it from the floor. Sadly for James, lying on the floor made him look something like a throw rug, between his ears and his solid red color pattern, he looked like a red cat throw rug.

Of course, most throw rugs didn't pack the "wirepower" to go through several first class SOLDIERs. So James stayed where he was on the floor, ready to come alive at the slightest threat and do whatever proved necessary to protect Aeris. "Don't worry about it Aeris. Just like I said before, let the river carry you along." The concept of letting the river carry you along was no longer quite as appetizing when she knew she was headed straight for a waterfall.

However before she could give voice to her thoughts, it happened. The door opened, and a familiar enough looking SOLDIER was on the other side of the door. He was the one who James had tossed aside with his wires allowing Mirri to get at Rufus Shinra. He took one look at Aeris, and then took one truly hateful look at James on the floor. "FREAK!" Before he got a chance to say anything else, James acted. He went from throw rug to lethal weapon in the blink of an eye.

He spun around, shot hands out, and used them to push himself into the air. In the air he spun around, and pressed the right places on his gloves. Stands of wire were between his hands before his feet hit the ground. Then he stretched his wires between his hands as he looked at the SOLDIER. "I wouldn't suggest that you take another step into this room. Mirri told me to protect this room, and that's what I'm going to do!"

The two locked eyes, and James continued to stretch the wires between his hands. "Listen you freak I'm going to kick your balls up between those fing cat ears of yours!" "No." The SOLDIER went for his blade, but the strands of white were faster. The sword dropped from the SOLDIER's shoulders as the strap connecting him to it, was severed.

"I'm sorry about that, but if I get hurt, there won't be anyone left to protect Aeris." The SOLDIER looked ready to do with his hands what he wanted to do with his sword, but James didn't care. "Oh, and by the way, I should warn you I'm not that good with these things really. I mean, as you can see I'm a good 'shot', but there are some things I'm just no good at with them.

I can aim them just fine, but being able to control how much pressure I apply is sort of up to chance. If I'm not careful, I may accidentally do more damage then I intend to. I mean if I slice at your bones, well your first class, but if I accidentally keep going, I could take your hole hand off!"

No one but James could have delivered that line with honesty and concern and not a hint of threat. The SOLDIER backed down at the sight of the wire fluctuating around James like a living being taking time to pick up his sword.

----

"What do you hope to achieve by this?" Mirri and Rufus where seated on opposite side of the presidents luxurious room. The chair Mirri was currently was lounging was of a material befitting a president, or was comfortable as sin to the less enlightened. The chair also happened to clearly be the one that Rufus had sat in on his way up, which made it all the more fun to sit in.

Rufus sat on the other side of the room and looked considerably less comfortable then Mirri. By his seat was a double barreled shotgun, but both of them knew that the instant Rufus went for that shotgun his life would be forfeit. Along with the shotgun, Rufus had one other weapon with him. It was a black dog he called Dark Nation who was almost as big as Alex was as a wolf.

He clearly did not appreciate anyone ordering his master around, but he apparently realized that Mirri could take both him and his master without much trouble. Mirri lay languidly for a moment and then answered Rufus' question. "Simple, just following what Sephiroth taught me. When you win, get as much out of it as you can, drive your foes to the ground and crush their skulls as your march over their bodies.

When you lose, get as much out of it as possible. Die raking blood stained claws across the body of your foe, fall forward so that your corpse might pin him to the ground dooming him to the same fate as you. I'm going for everything I can get before it's time for me to die." Rufus glared at her with anger, but his words proved him a coward. "You seem to be fairly ready to die."

Mirri crossed her legs in irritation, some people would never understand. "Oh, I'm not ready to die just yet. The chief advantage of this plan is that it buys us time." "Time for what? Don't tell me you expect Sephiroth to come and rescue you like a knight in shining armor?"

"Mr. President, I haven't believed in knights in shining armor for a very long time. I believe in myself, not to mention the fact that very soon you'll realize you have much greater problems then us. To be exact, I anticipate, you'll have problems so great that your going to need every kind of help you can get. Particularly from experts like us who have kicked you ass up one side if the mountain and then back down it." "Is that a threat?" "No Mr. President, it's a promise."

----

"Reno, we're picking up something, big." Elena, Rude, and Reno had the dubious honor of being in charge of Junon's defense system. As Junon wasn't about to be attacked any time soon, Reno and Rude were currently more or less sloshed, with Elena the only one doing any actual working.

Reno looked up from the floor where he had been resting, and cocked an eyebrow at Elena (thankfully it rose high enough to make it visible even with his sunglasses on) in question. "Do we have any visual conformation?" Elena scrolled over facts and figures, taking slightly longer then normal because she was doing a job that had been meant to be done by three people.

Not to mention certain parts of her body hadn't fully recovered, magic and Jenova cells had eradicated all major signs of her wounds by the time the helicopter had taken her to Junon, but her entire body was still twinging with pain now and then. "No visual confirmation yet, but sheer size says it has to be the Valar."

With speed that belied how much he had been slacking off previously Reno was instantly at Elena's shoulder. "Isn't it supposed to go to Midgar first?" "Yes" Other men who knew what Reno knew would have been frightened, but Reno had nerves of steel and a brain diluted with liquor, the courage that so many found when stinking drunk had become part of his personality at all times.

"Elena step aside! I'm gonna need control of every single base defense gun we have, prepare to fire at the Valar!" Rude, took another sip from his bottle of beer and did nothing. Elena spun her chair around and took a very long look at Reno as if wondering how he could be so drunk yet still standing.

"Reno the President is on that ship! We can't blow it out of the sky!" Reno delivered a swift kick to Elena's wheeled chair to send it, and her along with it, sliding across the room so he could stand before the control panel. "Elena listen to me, there is only one reason the Valar could be coming here, and that's because the President isn't in control. If he is even on that thing, he's a hostage. And Turk's don't deal with people who take hostages!

We've got one chance Elena, and only one chance to stop Mirri before she lands that ship right on top of us, and deploys and army of northern amazons armed with modern weapons and smashes this entire base like a rotten log! Sure you can defect but what about me? This is for the sake of free men everywhere! FIRE ONE!" Reno thrust forward a finger at the first button that caught his eye. It was a big red one, and it was marked "SAM".

----

A single missile left Juno Base heading towards the Valar. If the ship had been on alert, or even slightly expecting some kind of attack it probably wouldn't have been hit. However, as it was, the ships crew was currently relaxing: what did they have to worry about?

They were headed towards the second strongest Shinra Mako and Electric Power Company presence on the Planet, who was going to attack them? As it was, they didn't realize the missile was headed for them until it was too late to stop it by any means.

The missile slammed into the underside of the Valar and exploded, doing very little real damage but making the entire ship shudder.

----

The President's private room was by no means immune to the fact that the rest of the ship had been hit. The shudder that ran through it tossed Mirri from her chair, and even though Rufus found himself in a similar situation he knew now was the time to act. "GET HER DARK NATION!" Rufus reached for his shotgun, which had been tossed about just like him as the dark hound bounded for Mirri.

Sadly for him, Mirri may was only slightly disturbed by the entire event. She was thrown into the air, but she landed on her feet and even as Dark Nation charged at her blades sprang from her gloves. Dark Nation was huge, but Mirri easily dealt with him in one smooth blow, slicing his head off with a strike from her right hand.

She raised her left hand at fired at where Rufus' Shinra should have been, but from the sound of metal blades into metal ship, she missed. Then Dark Nation's headless corpse hit her, and the transfer of momentum sent her sprawling. She fell to the ground, using her right hand to slice Dark Nation's body apart down the middle. The beast's body fell away from her and she fired her right hand glove's blades at where Rufus should have been, and missed again.

She loaded new blades into her gloves, but before she could use them she felt something hard and metallic slam across the back of her head

End Chapter.

FN 2: Yea, you've been cliff hangered. So to make it up to you, I give you this..

From

http/ 4 Shooting is not too good for my enemies.

Sephiroth: Rufus, do you know what a sword is?

Rufus: It's a tool.

Sephiroth: No, it's a friend, Masamune is my friend, and quite frankly I'm not going to get your disgusting "blue blood" all over her. (Picks up Rufus' shotgun) Now I'm not very good with these things, but I assume I point the end the bullets come out at you and pull the trigger.

(Fires both barrels at Rufus at point blank range)

#12 One of my advisors will be an average five-year-old child. Any flaws in my plan that he is able to spot will be corrected before implementation.

James: Great plan, but one question.

Sephiroth: Yes?

James: Why don't we just knock out a janitor, he'll need to have keys to every room in the building.

Sephiroth: ...

#29 I will dress in bright and cheery colors, and so throw my enemies into confusion.

Sephiroth: (In bright pink version of uniform) This had better work.

# 61 If my advisors ask "Why are you risking everything on such a mad scheme?", I will not proceed until I have a response that satisfies them.

Mirri: Why the hell are we going to save Midgar?

Sephiroth: We're not saving Midgar, we're saving James.

# 64 I will see a competent psychiatrist and get cured of all extremely unusual phobias and bizarre compulsive habits which could prove to be a disadvantage.

Mirri: Well congratulations I think I've managed to free you from an obsessive fear of needles and the smell of sterile rooms.

Sephiroth: Good. Next, can we work on the inferiority complex I have about my superiority complex?

Mirri: Fine repeat after me. "Jenova Uber Alles!"

Sephiroth: Jenova Uber Alles.

Mirri: I can't here you, put some effort into it!

Sephiroth: Jenova Uber Alles!

Mirri: Good, now do it with the little double dots on top.

Sephiroth: Jenova Über Alles! 

Mirri: Now you're in the spirit!

# 73 I will not agree to let the heroes go free if they win a rigged contest, even though my advisors assure me it is impossible for them to win.

Sephiroth: Rufus Shinra, you can go free, (kicks him into Valar's engine) to the incinerator.

# 78 I will not tell my Legions of Terror "And he must be taken alive!" The command will be "And try to take him alive if it is reasonably practical."

Mirri: Hey I think we found the guy you wanted. (Tosses broken body of Hojo in front of Sephiroth)

Sephiroth: Well it will soothe my soul to know that he suffered as he went..

# 83 If I'm eating dinner with the hero, put poison in his goblet, then have to leave the table for any reason, I will order new drinks for both of us instead of trying to decide whether or not to switch with him.

Rufus: So the question is did you put the poison in your glass or my glass? But I know you're a brave man, so you would put in your glass, let us drink from our glasses.

(Sephiroth and Rufus both drink)

Sephiroth: You guessed wrong.

Rufus: What?

Sephiroth: My immune system makes you look like a bubble boy: I poisoned both glasses. Thanks for playing.

(Rufus falls over dead)

# 84 I will not have captives of one sex guarded by members of the opposite sex.

Reno: Hey.

James: Hey.

Reno: You know if you were Catwarrior this would be the part where I take my clothes off.

James: Bummer

Reno: Yep.

# 102 I will not waste time making my enemy's death look like an accident, I'm not accountable to anyone and my other enemies wouldn't believe it.

(Shot of Hojo leaning over desk with Masamune planted in his back and the words "Sephiroth was here" written in blood along wall)

Reno: I just might have an idea who did this...

# 120 Since nothing is more irritating than a hero defeating you with basic math skills, all of my personal weapons will be modified to fire one more shot than the standard issue.

SOLDIER: I just heard two shotgun blasts, he's all out of ammo!

(Runs round corner)

Vincent: (Holding Cerberus) (Three barreled shotgun) Guess again!

(SOLDIER's head explodes)

# 130 All members of my Legions of Terror will have professionally tailored uniforms. If the hero knocks a soldier unconscious and steals the uniform, the poor fit will give him away.

Sephiroth: Reno, did you really think this would work?

Reno: (With pony tail cut off, in James' outfit) Well, I was very drunk at the time.

# 147 I will classify my lieutenants in three categories: untrusted, trusted, and completely trusted. Promotion to the third category will be awarded posthumously.

Sephiroth: Alas, Zack, I hardly knew you.

# 153 My Legions of Terror will be an equal-opportunity employer. Conversely, when it is prophesied that no man can defeat me, I will keep in mind the increasing number of non-traditional gender roles.

Sephiroth: You know the job of psychotic second in command is usually given to some tall guy who doesn't say much.

Mirri: And men who try to conquer the world usually are bald.

Sephiroth: Touché.

# 178 If I have the hero cornered and am about to finish him off and he says "Look out behind you!" I will not laugh and say "You don't expect me to fall for that old trick, do you?" Instead I will take a step to the side and half turn. That way I can still keep my weapon trained on the hero, I can scan the area behind me, and if anything was heading for me it will now be heading for him.

Rufus: What you don't realize is that even as we speak one of my men has a gun to your head.

Sephiroth: (With Masamune to Rufus' neck) Well then, let's see who's faster.

Rufus: Don't just stand there, Reno; shoot him!

(Reno with gun to Sephiroth's head pulls trigger)

(Sephiroth whips head around, and bullet goes through Rufus' eye while Sephiroth knocks Reno's gun out of his hand)

Reno: (With Masamune to his throat) Oops.

Sephiroth: I'm tempted to let you go just because you accidentally did something that just benefited humanity in general.

# 184 I will hire a drama coach. The hero will think it must be a case of mistaken identity when confronted by my Minnesota accent (if everyone sounds American) or my Cornwall accent (if everyone sounds British).

Reno: We're in Wutai, it can't be that freaking hard to find Sephiroth! How many people with silver hair and green eyes are we going to find in this city, much less ones who don't speak fluent Wutain?

Random guy with black hair and sunglasses: (In Wutain) I doubt you'll find any!

Reno: (Pause) (In Wutian) Where...I drink... much... ghosts?

(Random guy points)

Reno: We'll start looking in taverns you to follow me!

(They walk off)

Random guy: (Tilts back glasses, revealing green cat eyes) I so do treasure the way that Reno is so easily derailed by the prospect of a beer.

Mirri: Yeah, and that was some good dye Melkore got you.

Sephiroth: (Formerly Random guy) Yeah, though I'll never understand why I have these freakily Wutian facial structure...

# 196 I will hire an expert marksman to stand by the entrance to my fortress. His job will be to shoot anyone who rides up to challenge me.

Reno: (On chocobo back with binoculars) Is that the airship we're looking for?

(Bullet hits Reno's chocobo and it drops out from under him)

(Reno looks through binoculars, and see's Vincent holding sniper riffle waving at him)

Reno: That's the one all right.

# 207 Employees will have conjugal visit trailers which they may use provided they call in a replacement and sign out on the timesheet. Given this, anyone caught making out in a closet while leaving their station unmonitored will be shot.

Sephiroth: Aeris, where's James?

Aeris: On break.

Sephiroth: Where's Mirri.

Aeris: On James.

# 208 Members of my Legion of Terror will attend seminars on Sensitivity Training. It's good public relations for them to be kind and courteous to the general population when not actively engaged in sowing chaos and destruction.

Doctor: Today we'll try to break your reliance on mood altering chemicals.

Vincent: (Has IV line filled with blood attached to arm) It's a medical condition and I'm a little bit sensitive about it thank you very much!

Melkore: (Has IV lined filled with coffee attached to his) Yeah what the bat said!

Reno: (With IV lined filled with clear liquid booze on his) You know, Rufus really needs to find me a safer environment to kick my alcohol problem in. Speaking of my alcohol problem when do are you going to have a breakdown so we can just break out the kegs and party?

# 220 Whatever my one vulnerability is, I will fake a different one. For example, ordering all mirrors removed from the palace, screaming and flinching whenever someone accidentally holds up a mirror, etc. In the climax when the hero whips out a mirror and thrusts it at my face, my reaction will be "Hmm...I think I need a shave."

Cloud: HA! YOU'RE POWERLESS WITHOUT YOUR LONG SILVER HAIR! (Holding section of Sephiroth's hair he cut off)

Sephiroth: (With hair down to shoulders) No, just very pissed off.

**OWAN: Okay, sorry about the huge delay, but theater season has started again. Those of you who've stuck with us, thank you SO much. Be patient with us, please.**


	25. Chapter 25

Chapter 25 From the ashes and the embers, like a rocket I'll asend. Like a cry gone up for a fallen freind. Like phoneix ignition!

Aeris came awake slowly, and instantly wished she hadn't as soon as she could fully understand what she could see and feel. She was lying flat on a table, with manacles holding her, like a dead butterfly. With her thoughts running in that vein it was all too easy to tell who she would see in the room, regardless of what she had been told. Dr. Simon Hojo was alive, well, and smiling down at her.

"So glad to see that your still alive Half-Cetra, I'm sure you'll prove quite useful to my studies." Aeris struggled helplessly against her restraints just to prove she could still move her body. "Don't exhaust yourself Half-Cetra, I would hate to have you die as a result of my tests, but don't worry, I've already got a cell sample this time! As Hojo spoke he reached into his lab coat and pulled out a small test tube filled with blood. At the sight of it Aeris suddenly felt a sore spot on her left wrist, and felt the enormity of

the situation crash down on her.

They had all been captured, all of them except Sephiroth, because he was probably dead. It wasn't just a bad dream, no this was a nightmare, worse than any before. "You're supposed to be dead, Melkore told me so." Hojo laughed, a sound that made Aeris shiver.

"Morningstar always overestimated his abilities! You see Cetra, enough Jenova cells grant one incredible regenerative powers, as I'm sure you will find out soon enough in our experiments. It was no less painful to have that pathetic fool shoot me, but it will take much more than he did to kill me. Morningstar was a bright lad, but he was never able to finish what he started, just lay down the ground work. He couldn't finish his beloved 'Mako Cannon' and as for his little pet project, I think I've improved it greatly. Why don't you glimpse the future, while you still have human eyes."

Aeris wasn't able to move much, but she managed to take a fuller survey of the room, there was a third person in it. James was laid down on a table like her, but he had no restraints pinning him down. Across his left eye was an odd device, it looked like a single lens to a pair of glasses, and it was connected to an equally strange contraption that was strapped across his ear.

His ears were fully visible because his hat had been left neglected on a shelf in the room. James was unconscious, and the lens that was held over his left eye had its kin in a small microphone position inside his left ear. Hojo smiled in a disgusting grin that almost split his face as he noticed what Aeris was looking at.

"That's one of the most useful inventions that I've made over the years, a sonic inhibitor. It uses short range but powerful hypersonic blasts to render areas of the brain inactive. On the books for Shinra its a safer, more effective, cheaper, and less time consuming way to perform a lobotomy on people showing unusually high amounts of aggression.

It remains in effect so long as it is not removed, which it won't be because I will tell him not to touch it. You see, the prototype that this subject is wearing does something other than disable the frontal lobe responsible for aggression. This one attacks the minds ability to transmit emotions, joy, fear, pain, happiness, empathy, love, or anything else."

As Hojo spoke, he slowly waved a hand back and forth above James' face. "Would you like to see it in action Half-Cetra?" Before Aeris could answer, Hojo snapped his fingers, and instantly James' eyes shot open, except they weren't his. They were still red, but they were no longer James' bright eyes, the spark had vanished.

The only thing that Aeris could see was a pair of red eyes which showed even less then Vincent's, they were almost completely devoid of life. "Sit up." James did as Hojo commanded, and then sat perfectly still, a feat Aeris had never seen him accomplish before. Hojo turned his attention from James to Aeris, beaming with pride.

"Wonderful isn't it? Behold, the Hand of Jenova, witness her actions! Morningstar's basic design was fine for someone like him, but I've upgraded this being to its full completion. He will take orders from me and only me, and he will do only what I tell him to do. The only passable thing about this creature was his weapon, so I have left it untouched, it will be a wonderful symbol. Stand up."

James got off the table he had been sitting on, and stood up straighter then Aeris had ever seen him stand. Hojo walked over to a small intercom and pushed the button, making his voice pathetically helpless. "This is Doctor Hojo! We have an escaped lab subject, send a squad of guards in here to deal with him at once!" The door opened almost as soon as Hojo's pathetic cry left his mouth. Five guards instantly rushed in with armed weapons and turned them on James. "FREEZE!"

"I'm afraid he won't listen to reason, you'll just have to kill them." Aeris understood Hojo's twisted use of language, but no one else did. The guards fearlessly opened up on James, believing him easy to take down in the confined spaces. The guards however were mistaken; it was they who had no chance.

James casually turned his attention from Dr. Hojo to the men who were trying to kill him. He stroked his gloves, and Aeris saw white wire flash around him like a fishing net. Bullets danced around him, but none touched him, those that came close were sliced into minuscule pieces of lead.

Then James attacked the guards with smooth perfection. With a single flick of his wrist, five different guns were sliced apart by an invisible force. Then James made a small reverse twist, and for a moment Aeris saw the strand of white flash through the air.

Five heads toppled from five sets of shoulders, and only then began to bleed. If even a speck of it managed to touch the strands of white however Aeris couldn't see it. Instead she saw five dead bodies slowly draining themselves of blood on the floor. James showed no emotion at all though Hojo seemed very happy with the results. "Wonderful, simply wonderful, truly now I think you could surpass Sephiroth."

James still showed no emotion in his eyes or any other part of his body. Aeris still struggled to free herself even though she achieved nothing. "James help me!" James didn't even look like he could hear her voice; he kept his eyes firmly on Hojo.

----

Mirri sat alone in the cell waiting. Her hands were connected together by heavy iron chains which where connected directly to the wall. Similarly her legs were chained to the floor, unless Mirri could tear chunks out of the prison itself, she had no chance of escape.

Mirri had borne the entire affair of her capture and transfer to this cell with silent determination. She had been docile as Elena had gone over her with a metal detector to make sure that every single one of her blades were removed. They had been alone in the room and there had been only one look exchanged between them. It came when Elena, having removed all of Mirri's blades was about to get to work on her second skeleton that fed the blades into her gloves.

Mirri had instantly jerked alive, as if sensing Elena's purpose, and looked her right in the eyes. Elena, had baulked for only an instant, before leading Mirri out of the room into the hands of the waiting guards. Mirri was still wearing her gloves, and underneath her clothing her second skeleton was still intact. But what could she do with it since she didn't have any blades?

Someone less familiar with Mirri would have said she was being gracious in defeat. Someone more familiar with Mirri would know that she didn't believe in such things, because she didn't believe in defeat. Death was the only thing that could defeat her. Anything else was just a minor inconvenience that could be over come. Even as they had been connecting her chains to the wall and to the floor, she had already been planning an escape. By the time the two men came for her, she was ready.

One man was a Shinra guard, the other was a first class SOLDIER, they should have been enough for one prisoner in chains. Too bad they hadn't taken Reno's advice and sent in a battalion with mech, artillery, and air support. The guard stood back with his gun trained on Mirri while the SOLDIER got to work.

He produced a shining key, and used it to release Mirri's chains from the wall. He never got a chance to unlock Mirri's legs. Her wrists still had heavy chains around them, but the chains were not quite heavy enough to keep a SOLDIER from being able to use them as something else.

The chains freed from the wall, Mirri suddenly thrashed about raising her hands in the air, and the chains followed. Mirri crossed her hands, and the chains followed, the SOLDIER never had a chance to go for his sword.

Heavy chains wrapped themselves around the SOLDIERS neck, and Mirri pulled. The guard was unable to help his superior, Mirri had perfectly positioned things so that even as she strangled the man he made an effective human shield. When it was over, Mirri relaxed her grip slightly, and let the lifeless body fall to the floor as she stood up.

The guard had his gun, but Mirri had her own weapon ready to use, and she wasn't afraid. The guard apparently didn't know that one of the many classes first class SOLDIERS took to attain their rank, was how to escape and make weapons out of restraining devices. Mirri had always been good at escaping, and she had been moderately proficient at fighting with chains. These were heavier than the ones she was used to, and she hadn't practiced in a long time, but it was enough.

She flung her hands sideways at the guard, and the chains between them smashed into the guard's face. They were very heavy chains, and reduced his head to a bloody mess as he dropped to the floor. Mirri bent down and picked up the golden key that had belonged to the SOLDIER. Much as she suspected, she found that it was capable of releasing the chains that bound her legs from where they had been firmly attached to the floor.

Then with rising hopes she tried them on the manacles that attached her hands to the chains. The key worked, it also did with her legs. Mirri looked at the small key and smiled, as she picked up the gun the dead guard had dropped. Shinra was getting sloppy, it was a skeleton key, something that you should never let a prisoner get within a mile of, let alone in the same cell as.

That saved her the problem of how to open the cell door, no need to use the SOLDIER's sword on it. She just put the key in, turned it, and the door opened. The two guards on either side of the door had no chance. The cell had been soundproof, so that it's keepers could have some "fun" with the prisoners if they wanted to and no one would hear. Mirri shuddered at the idea of being glad for such a horrific convenience, but it helped her this time.

The guards had expected to see her walk out first with the SOLDIER and guard who had gone in behind her. By the time they realized she was alone, she had shot the single video camera in the room followed by each of them. By the time they realized they had been shot, Mirri had already delivered a fatal to shot to the head of each guard, so they may never have realized it.

She calmly tossed the gun aside, and turned her attention to the stockpile of blades that was lying in a small mound of metal in a corner of the room. After locking the door, she began to strip down to load up.

---

"Reno something is wrong in cell block 29." Elena was monitoring the computer system that the Turks had been assigned to look after in Junon because neither of her male companions was fit for the task.

Reno and Rude were currently both sitting on the floor studying their task with boundless concentration. Both of them had a deck of cards, and were attempting to flip cards from the deck into a hat with a bottle of Junon's cheapest and thus worst tasting liquor sitting between them. Early on in the game they had been playing a more competitive version were whenever one of them made a shot their opponent drank.

When the two Turk's were sober (which was a rare condition) they had excellent hand to eye coordination. Thus it only took them a few tosses to deplete the first bottle and move onto the second. Reno wasn't quite sure of how many bottles they had gone through, but he we would guess a lot.

A lot to Reno was an acceptable scientific amount, it came right after 10 for bottles of beer, or 10 shots of harder stuff. It documented a number that you couldn't calculate with just your hands, or at least not while each hand only had 5 fingers, so a lot could become 20 only to become a lot again. Either way it had degenerated to the point that Reno and Rude had agreed to change the rules so that whenever someone missed they took a drink.

This amazingly enough managed to accelerate the already impressive speed they were imbibing alcohol at. Reno looked up at Elena from the floor, pitched a card in her general direction, (which happened to be in the opposite direction of the hat) then grabbed the bottle and took a swig. "What kind of problem?"

Out of necessity Reno had learned how to avoid major speech impediments just because he was drunk. "We've just lost video feed, and it happened so fast I'm not sure why. Two of our guys go in, doors close, door opens, we lose feed." Rude pitched a card, and somehow managed to make it in. Reno would account for this because the area where he thought nothing was, the hat actually existed.

Reno peeked at his next card (far more obviously then he realized) and smiled, it was the queen of spades, might as well show the lady some respect. With a perfect spinning throw he sent the card flying into the hat to land face up. That vastly more important task completed, he turned his attention to Elena.

"Well Mirri's in that cell right? Some idiot probably just did something stupid, so Mirri dropped the heavy end of the hammer on him, probably between his legs. Then she opened the door, shot the camera and the guards. Right now she's probably taking her clothes off so that she can put all those blades you took off her back on." As Reno said those last words, he stopped speaking and seemed to zone out, his eyes misting over, his face frozen in a lopsided grin.

Rude in silence made his next shot, missed it, and took a swig from the bottle emptying it. In the fine principle of he who empties has to refill, he grabbed a new bottle from the stack they had laid in front of an air conditioning vent in the wall. He twisted the cap off with his teeth, and spat it out before placing it down between him and Reno. Despite the horrible quality of the vintage and the advanced state of intoxication, not a single drop was spilled during this process.

His sacred duty done, Rude nudged Reno bringing him back to reality. Wiping a bit of saliva that was hanging from his lip off with the cuff of his sleeve, Reno returned his attention to his deck of cards. His shot might have taken Rude's right eye out if he hadn't been wearing glasses. Reno reached for the bottle as was his honor bound duty.

"Well shouldn't we do something to tell people that there is an escaped prisoner?" Reno finished his swig before he answered. "I'm afraid I can't let you do that Elena. We wouldn't achieve anything anyways, even if we left now by the time we got there, she'll be fully dressed again ready to kill us all. That's what we call a no win situation."

Elena raised an eyebrow while Rude took another shot and missed, though by a much more narrow margin then Reno was at this point in the game. "But, if we don't do anything she might escape!" Reno clicked his tongue sadly as Rude took his drink. Then in a voice that a parent generally used to explain something simple to a child he spoke.

"If we bring down this entire base on her, then we can be sure that she will escape, and we'll all die. Mirri gets some kind of freakishly weird delight out of beating the odds, or doing things that people tell her she can't do. It's like sex for her, except that I think most men are too attached to their souls, yours truly excluded, to approach that succubus. Bear in mind I use that as a term of respect for her. It takes a lot skill to suck a man's soul out through his eyeballs.

Now, if we just sit here, playing cards, drinking, we'll get off just fine. Nothing good can happen if we get involved, Mirri's already built up too much momentum, getting in her way now is like stepping in front of a train, it doesn't do slow the thing down, but you seriously regret it"

Reno attempted to make a very difficult shot by throwing the card in the general direction of the hat while he was still looking at Elena. Of course he missed yet he somehow managed to locate the bottle and bring it to his lips even while looking in the opposite direction. "Reno, it's our jobs to do this, whether or not we want to!"

Elena reached for an intercom button, but Reno was faster. He had just taken a sip (or maybe a swallow) from the bottle in his hand when he spat it out in irritation at Elena's words. With a mix of the impairing effect his blood's content of very bad alcohol had on judgment, his determination to self-preservation and desire to slack off, he knew what he had to do. He might have taken off his gun and nightstick and laid them at the other end of the room, but he had one weapon.

A mostly filled bottle of beer. Reno was remarkably skilled at killing people with beer bottles out of practice. He tossed the bottle end over end at the control panel Elena reached for. The bottle exploded like a fragmentation grenade causing pieces of glass to fly out in all directions. Elena managed to avoid any bodily harm by pulling back from the panel, however the damage was not just the glass.

An almost full bottle of liquor splashed itself over the control panel, and the results could be expected. Elena jumped for the other side of the room first, and Rude (managing to grab the hat) and Reno soon followed. They took refuge behind various objects as one after another the computers making up the Junon defense net, sparked and exploded.

Throughout the base for brief moments lights flickered before backup power came on. However, the damage could not be undone, when the lights finally came back on and the dust cleared, all of the video cameras were offline, not just the one that Mirri may have shot. Glares and blame where instantly exchanged.

"Now look what you did Elena!" "What I did, look what you did Reno!" "Nose it!" "What's that..." "Too late Elena you lost you have to make up the excuse." "Excuse?" "Don't worry if you're not good at it, it's only your first try. Believe me, anything will have to work better than the truth. Now then Rude, it looks like God is loving and the beer was protected by his/her/its/their/ divine hand(s)."

"Do you realize how little sense that makes?" "So what? There's both a 'U' and an 'R' in 'drunk', who are we to resist the desires of the universe?" "Reno?" "Yes Elena?" "Give me that bottle, Mirri was right, I think I'm going to need it." "Of course she's right, Mirri is always right. Anything else would be an offence to mother nature."

"You know Reno, this might just be the liquor talking but that's the most sense you've ever made." "Ohh trust me Elena, it's the liquor. Another bottle Rude?"

-----

Vincent and Alex were in the same cell. They where being restrained in completely different though equally effective means that had been designed by Hojo. Alex was currently hanging upside down from the ceiling held by not one but four silver chains, each one fastened around one of his legs. He had no leverage to pull against the chains and thus hung there like an animal brought back dead by ancient hunters.

Vincent was sitting, chains around each of his arms and attached to the walls, the series of chains much thicker around his left arm. It was unnecessary, Vincent hadn't "eaten" since Sephiroth left them. He had just sat alone looking at nothing, his black hair was now fully grey verging on white and all parts of his body showed his true age.

He was nothing but a very old man with no strength left in his limbs. Alex swung back and forth slightly as he tried to fight for the necessary grip that he wouldn't find to pull the silver chains apart. /Gaia curse weave worshipers, Gaia smite Wyrm Servants! Gaia break these chains that bind me as tightly as the ones that hold Fenris in the Fields of Slaughter!\

Alex's cries of course went unheard, as the four lengths of chains made from pure silver strapped to his body prevented him from touching even the smallest amount of his Gnosis. Vincent sat below, and he did not even attempt to free himself form his bonds. He had failed his master, he had failed a second time, life was empty. He had failed even with all this power he 'had', he didn't deserve to live, maybe if he waited long enough Shinra wouldn't even have to do anything.

He would just waste away until his body was reduced to shadows and never took human shape again. More likely Shinra would find some way of killing him, probably either tossing him into the water below, or letting the sun burn the flesh from his skin as it would when he was this desiccated. Alex continued to swing back and forth without achieving anything and turned his attention to the other occupant of the cell.

Alex had been in this cell for an hour now, and he was as desperate as a Bone Gnawer who had said the wrong thing to a Black Fury. The cell was dark, it had no lights in it, and no windows for light to come in through, though both of them could see well enough. So he swallowed deeply and turned his mental voice to address his one possible hope of salvation. /What are you waiting for vampire? Do something!\

Vincent sagged, his skin was loose on his body, his eyes a pinkish color, almost white, as if a sickness had removed the power of sight from them, or he no longer wanted to see. "He's dead." Alex's snarled saliva dripping down to the floor, his sadly useless rage at this situation focused keenly on the vampire.

/Fenris is trapped in the world of the dead to spend our entire lifetimes among those too unworthy to enter Valhalla and who seek to gain that honor by crawling over the bodies of their own fallen! What does it matter? FIGHT/ Vincent didn't move at all. "Why?"

Alex snapped at the air, claws slashing at a foe which he couldn't reach. \TO FIGHT! Do you think I have ever seen what Fenris looks like? Do you think I ever will even in the afterlife except a glance on my way to Valhalla? You knew what the god you believe in looked like, if anything that should inspire you to even greater feats!\ Alex tried vainly to claw at his chains but missed. "I failed him just like before."

/THEN FIGHT HARDER! Sacrifice everything you have if it helps you in any way! I could chew through my legs to free myself, but the wounds wouldn't heal when I shifted. They would close over, but it would be days before they re-grew, but I am almost wiling to do so. I would lie there crippled till they came to kill me, but at least I would die free even if I was mutilated by my own jaws!\

Vincent still sat unmoving on the makeshift bed that was little more then a slab of stone. "You don't understand." The fur all over Alex's body bristled with rage both at the situation and at the apathy of the vampire. /Of course I don't understand Vampire! My mind reels like a wounded chocobo trying to grasp how with pathetic 'monsters' like you the Wyrm was ever able to defeat my ancestors! You aren't even a vampire, nothing but a pathetic blood bloated leech, a lamprey, you have no legs and so must instead prostrate yourself on your belly!

You're so pathetic that even the Wyrm would not have your service! Where are the demons summoned from below, where are the victims lying bloodless, their lips frozen in unspoken terror, where are the wings of shadow? Where are the legion of undead servants, where're the elements themselves supposedly springing to your command, where's the strength of 20 men in one hand?\

At least this scathing series of question managed to gain an acknowledgment of reality. "Gone with the blood that will never again be in my body. I have no desire to live after a failure such as mine." It just might be worth it to chew through his legs because on human stumps of limbs he might be able to get close enough to the vampire and end his pathetic life for him as he desired.

/FIGHT! Do you think I outlived both of my brothers by years beyond count so that I could die here in this cage with my only company one as pathetic as you? Those who die must do so by the will of Gaia regardless of how little we care for it! Only gods are able to recreate themselves through the willing bodies of their most loyal servants!

If you have any loyalty at all to your alpha's spirit then you will stop lying there like a carcass to be picked apart by buzzards and use the spark of life that has been so unfairly reinserted in your body! Odds, conditions, beliefs, situation, wounds, are all unimportant, so long as an ounce of life is in your body FIGHT!

That is how you deal with your problems, FIGHT! Do not run and hide, but reduce all obstacles before you to dust! Even the Ragabash understands that, FIGHT! Even humans going about their pointless little lives understand that in their twisted corrupted desire to give their lives meaning, THEY FIGHT! ARE YOU SO REMOVED FROM GAIA? FIGHT!"/

"Even humans... even humans... even humans..." Vincent repeated it over and over again slowly. How long had he been something other then human, how long ago had he died? How had he died, he couldn't tell, in the grips of Hojo's sadistic experiments the line between living and dead was a very thin one. He was dead, and soon his body would mirror the condition of his spirit. So why did something inside Vincent insist that Alex was right? Slowly, very slowly a memory that he couldn't remember before played itself before his eyes.

----

The door slid off its hinges, and Mirri strode into the room, blades already loaded into her gloves. She took one look at the scene before her, and smiled. "Looks like I got here just in time." Doctor Hojo "muttered" a curse that Aeris heard and thus Mirri must have heard as well. "Pathetic wench! Firecat, deal with her!"

James who had up to this point been just standing still slowly turned to glare at Mirri, who rocked back on her heels for a only a moment. "Don't worry James, I'm sure you'll forgive me for whatever it is I'm about to do." Hojo drew away from James cackling as he did. "You won't have a chance to do anything girl! You are now faced with the hand of Jenova!"

It was as short as with the SOLDIERS. Mirri raised her gloves and fired blades at James. James in return stood perfectly still for a moment, wire fluctuating between his hands. The blades were sliced apart by strands of white, causing them to veer off course and miss James. Then James moved with that same cold unnatural speed to attack Mirri.

As new blades loaded into Mirri's right glove the wires shot out, carefully decapitating the blades before they could be used. At the same time wire shot from his left hand, and wrapped itself around Mirri's neck. James pulled tight, not tight enough to break the skin, yet, but tight enough to make it hard to breath. Mirri dropped to her knees but loaded blades into her left glove at the same time.

Somehow, her neck remaining perfectly still she managed to speak. "James, don't make me kill you." Mirri's blades raised, almost touching James' chest, if she fired them they would hit. If James pulled a little tighter, Mirri would die. If Mirri depressed the correct section of her left glove, those blades would rip James's body in half as they passed through him, and James would die.

The two stared at each other, no other words were needed. Hojo laughed at what he saw. "Yes, yes, kill each other! Don't bother trying to talk to him girl, the thing you once knew no longer exists!" Aeris watched transfixed in horror.

How could she let his happen? She had to do something, but she couldn't. If only she was able to grasp the silver light again she would be strong enough! If only she had paid more attention when Alex had been giving her those lessons, if only she hadn't been so afraid... if only, if only, if only... the silver light...

--------

James had a splitting headache, literally. It wasn't that he had a horrible pain in his head, it was just that somehow he got the sense that he wasn't all there. As if some critical part of him was busy somewhere else, or he had left it behind, like he had forgotten his hat. Then, as he scratched his left ear with his left hand, (an act he always though could help the brain get going) he realized that in fact he had to have left his hat behind, otherwise he wouldn't be able to scratch his ear.

"RELAX, YOU ARE SIMPLY HAVING A NEAR-ME EXPERINCE." James looked at the figure standing before him and said what instantly came to mind. "Of course I'm having a near you experience, you're standing right next to me." Then James's mouth snapped shut of it's own volition for the first time he could have ever remembered. The figure's face was concealed behind by a heavy black cloak, but James had a very strong imagination, and even Sephiroth's probably would have been good enough to guess what was happening.

He instantly scooted backwards away from the figure. "Listen if this is about the scythe thing, I'm not doing that any more, I haven't been for like a week or two now!" The figure approached him. "RELAX, I AM ACTUALLY FOND OF THOSE LIKE YOU." Even staring down at the Grim Reaper, curiosity got the best of James. "Those like me?"

Death (as that was the only thing James could think to call the figure) reached out a skeletal hand and stroked his ears. One paw it was creepy as all get out since it was cold and lacking skin, on the other, well Death like Mirri did know just the right place to scratch. Even his voice sounded friendly, once you realized he wasn't there to give you a reaping. "CATS."

James's right ear pricked up, as his left couldn't since it was being scratched by Death. "Really? Because I thought you'd be pissed at us since you have to reap us 9 times before we finally stay reaped, you know? Of course if this is only a practice reaping I guess you'll have to do me 10 times?" The skeletal hand withdrew to James's relief and displeasure. "HAVING TO REAP YOU MULTIPLE TIMES JUST GIVES ME MORE TIME TO GET TO KNOW YOU, YOU ARE A RATHER NICE LOT. YOU SHOULD COME BACK TO MY PLACE, AND I'LL SHOW YOU AROUND."

Before James could question how they got to Death's place they were already there. James was already sitting in a chair and looking at... ohh boy. It had the name "James Firecat" on it, but it didn't bare any particular resemblance to him. It looked like it would be something you found in a mad scientist's lab for straining chemicals, but this scientist would have had to be considerably more than a few neutrons short of an alpha emission.

It was impossible to truly tell where the thing started or stopped, but James could spend many a happy hour trying to figure it out. It had twists, turns, a couple of loop de loops, and one very interesting feature. Instead of any particular chemical, James could see sand was flowing through it, more or less.

The thing was not very large over all, but from the speed (or lack thereof) with which the sand moved it might take it several years just to move a portion of this thing. On second thought it wasn't so much a chemical strainer, as a renegade model of a theme park amusement ride made of glass. "What is this thing and why is my name on it?" James was so interested in the, whatever it was, that he hadn't realized Death was standing behind him till he spoke.

"IT IS YOUR LIFETIMER." James had grown accustomed to hearing words he

didn't know the meaning of, but it hadn't happened that recently up until now. "My what?" Death must really like cats because he could actually make it sound like he wanted James to understand. "YOUR LIFETIMER. IT MEASURES HOW LONG YOU HAVE LEFT TO LIVE."

James wasn't sure what kind of patient reaper confidentiality agreement Death had, so he would have to find out by asking. "So if this just a practice reaping, how long do I have left to live?" James to his delight discovered that the chair was a swivel, allowing him to spin it around and watch the very odd occurrence of Death shrugging.

"SEARCH ME. YOUR LIFETIMER IS SO COMPLICATED THAT EVEN I CAN'T FIGURE IT OUT. I'VE ONLY SEEN ONE OTHER LIKE IT, ITS OWNER MIGHT BE A REALTIVE OF YOURS, LIKED TO DRESS IN RED AND HATED PARTING WITH HIS HAT ALSO."

Ohh yeah his hat, that was a good point. "Mum, what exactly did happen to my hat by the way?" "YOU LEFT IT BEHIND WITH YOUR BODY. YOU ARE BRAIN DEAD, SO YOU ARE SPENDING SOME TIME WITH ME TILL YOU GET SENT BACK TO YOUR BODY. NOTICE THAT FROM WHERE YOUR SAND IS, IT JUST TOOK A SHARP DROP, AND IS NOW GOING UPHILL AGAIN, MOST PEOPLE WOULD HAVE JUST ROLLED OVER AND DIED."

James traced back the sand from the direction it was going. Indeed it had just taken a drop that was almost an inch long, who knew how far that was in sand feet. As James looked closer he noticed that his sand was an unusual color, he had never seen red sand before, but that wasn't his most pressing issue.

"If I left my hat behind with my body, why am I still wearing my clothes?" Showing good grace James made sure to spin his chair back around to face Death after asking his question, and having spun away from Death previously. "JUST BECAUSE I DO NOT HAVE ANYTHING IN MY EYE SOCKETS DOES NOT MEAN THAT I WISH TO GO BLIND."

Another deep sense of curiosity was growing in James' body and taking over his mouth. "So do you have one of these for every person, and all you do is watch them and reap souls? I guess you must be very busy, though it sounds sort of boring." "I SUBCONTRACT SOME OF MY WORK TO OTHERS. LOOK DOWN."

James did but didn't hear anything, though he thought he distinctly heard a "SQUEAK" not an ordinary mouse "squeak" but a "SQUEAK". As he turned back around, Death was polishing a few other Lifetimers that looked considerably more normal than James.

"I ALSO LIKE TO WATCH UNIQUE TIMERS, LIKE YOURS, THOUGH YOUR ENTIRE GROUP IS PAINFULY HARD TO PREDICT. I'LL PROBABLY HAVE TO FIND SOMEONE JUST TO PLAY DEATH TO YOU SOLDIERS SINCE YOU DIE AT SUCH UNPREDICATBLE TIMES. TAKE A LOOK. AS YOU CAN SEE YOU ARE SURROUNDED BY THOSE WHO LIVE OUTSIDE OF TIME."

Death's voice was always dry, but now it was practically desiccated. But when James spun his chair around he discovered that his lifetimer had been replaced with 6 others. The first one was as opposed to his very finely crafted, it looked like it had been made by an expert as opposed to a man who was far sighted in one eye and near sighted in the other.

It was no less strange even if it had been perfectly ordinary white sand in it. The sand fell down like normal sand, but the moment the sand touched the middle of the device instead of falling through it the sand did a 180 turn and made it's way back up to the top of the Lifetimer. "TOO STUBBORN TO DIE, THAT ONE." James looked at the small brass plaque presenting the title "Mirri Lufkin" to any who looked at the Lifetimer.

The next one was even more unusual. It was filled with that sand that was trying its damnedest to fall through the opening in the middle of the Lifetimer, but couldn't do it. This was because the "sand", despite very clearly being made of thin grains of sand, happened to be clumping together like dirt with blades of grass growing from them. Try as they might the few grains in the top, refused top refused to fall to the bottom.

"THERE ARE PLENTY OF STUPID PEOPLE WHO TRY TO CHEAT ME, BUT I ALWAYS GET THEM IN THE END. that girl has a painfully good system however. there I was with my scythe all sharpened and ready to reap, and then this happens. look at me, i'm so angry i'm speaking in lower case." James quickly glanced at the title "Aeris Gaste" was that Aeris' last name? James couldn't remember properly.

"Well Sephiroth said she can grow flowers in Lower Midgar so this must be easy by comparison, right?" Lacking an answer from Death he moved onto the next one. It rose from the table to the ceiling, which under close inspection was a long way up. Thus James, who had always had a head for numbers, took a guess that a century in this lifetimer glass would equal a year in a normal one.

"I FOR ONE WON'T MISS THOSE THINGS, SUCH LARGE LIFETIMERS ARE A PAIN TO MOVE AROUND, I ALMOST THREW OUT MY BACK ONCE." James glanced at the label "Alexander Diamondclaw" and then went onto the next one.

It had grey sand, and it did nothing. It didn't go up or down, it was just frozen like a photograph. He checked the name "Niro Rose" that made no sense. Death apparently could read his mind, which made sense as he was Death after all. "CONSTANT MOTION IS STILL CONSTANT."

James had never thought of it that way before, he took a moment to scratch his ear, at least he didn't have to think about adjusting his hat first. He moved onto a very odd one. It was filled with sand of every color, though most of it was predominantly black, As James looked closer he also noted that all the black sand was on the bottom of the Lifetimer.

The top was exclusively filled with sands of other colors. Sand that was trying to flow down into the bottom, but it was impeded. A silver stone was wedged in the very middle of the Lifetimer and it prevented almost all the other sand from falling down. James glanced at the name and things made sense. "Vincent Valentine."

"VAMPIRES, NOW THERE'S A PROBLEM. MY LIFETIMERES ARE DESINGED WHEN THE PERSON IS BORN RATHER THEN WHEN THEY DIE. SO SOME VAMPIRES HAVE A LIFETIMER FILLED TO THE BRIM OF BOTH ENDS WITH STOLEN SAND." James wasn't very sure about the "stolen" part, those red specks of sand had been his own and he had given them to Vincent. "What are those specks of Mirri's sand doing in Vincent's Lifetimer?"

He asked the question out loud to no one, and Death certainly didn't feel like answering. James moved onto the last Lifetimer, it was, odd. It had clearly been designed by someone who was very good at designing hourglasses, but not very good at ones that timed things. Because instead of sand it was filled with silver rocks that were much too large to fall through the section that sand normally fell through in the middle of the Lifetimer.

James looked down at the name and smiled. "Sephiroth" yep that was what Seph's should look like. Suddenly James frowned as he looked even closer. "Hey! Seph's Lifetimer has his last name on it, except that its all covered in dust. A little bit of spitshine should clear that up, you really should take better care of these things."

As James leaned closer Death's voice exploded behind him. "that is not for you to know!" What happened next James couldn't be perfectly sure of, but he had to venture a guess, Death whacked him between the ears with the blunt end of his scythe. It was about that time that everything got light.

-------

(Vincent's flashback)

"So I lost." It was an understatement if ever there was one. Vincent's entire body was filled with pain as never before. He had never been captured in combat, but he doubted any kind of torture most savage tribes might deliver to him could have compared with the pain he was now in. Which made sense, it was only by perfecting civilization that things like killing and pain could be perfected.

It was amazing that regardless of how much pain he was in he was still alive. He couldn't move, couldn't act, could barely breath, by some unknown hand he could speak, but he was alive. All across his body needles had been driven into his skin pumping in unknown (and Vincent was glad for that small mercy) chemicals into his body. Whatever they where, that was probably why Vincent was still alive, though he was quite sure that none of those chemicals had been painkillers of any type.

It was a testament to the warped mind of the man standing over him that the pain could be so clear while Vincent was hovering on the edge of death. "That's right you bastard Turk, sooner or later savages are brought to task by science!" Hold the phone, since when was Vincent the savage of the two of them?

He killed people, preferably from long range, though he had done some hands on stuff, but he did it quick. He doubted anyone would ever complain about the pain Vincent Valentine (assuming they even knew his name, which they shouldn't have) gave them by putting a round through their heads so perfectly that their brains blew out the other side of their skulls. He had tortured a few people, he had forced himself on a few women, on orders, but that was on orders, and Vincent's skill at torture couldn't hold a twinkle, let alone a candle to the man standing over him.

Vincent killed people because he had to pick up a pay check to buy food and a place to live. He was a perfectly civilized person, performing his perfectly civilized part to keep the perfectly civilized world running like clockwork. That some people found the job of removing parts of the clock that had broken down, or refused to work a distasteful occupation was their own problem. If they felt like voicing it, Vincent would be glad to remove them from the system as well.

Hojo seemed to be doing this for personal revenge, the novice. He was of course a genius and quite adept at dealing pain, but he was still a newborn babe in Vincent's world. Rule number one as a Turk: don't make it personal. Making it personal slowed your reflexes, and made you do stupid things.

Granted Vincent had committed this cardinal sin himself, if he had been smart it would be Hojo on the table instead of him, and with a 9MM bullet in his head instead of needles in his skin. Still Hojo was making this far too personal just because he had finally discovered that his wife had just given birth to Vincent's son as a result of the many times Vincent had been willing to simply lend her a shoulder to cry on, and a bed to sleep in.

Ohh and let's not forget all those scars on her Hojo, never seen anything like them beforehand myself, you must have thought a lot of yourself for someone who couldn't work with a man who was fing his wife and not realize it till the kid was born. You didn't realize it then did you Hojo? You didn't realize it till I tried to free him from you that you finally caught on, some genius you are. So how is it that Vincent was the savage and the man who was drawing Vincent's death out to infinity was the civilized one?

Didn't seem very fair to Vincent, but the guy being operated on didn't get to make the rules. "Sephiroth will be taken to Midgar tomorrow, he'll never belong to you. The body of my wife is being suitably dealt with. Much like you she will spend eternity as an empty shell of a body, she'll never belong to you either!" Vincent didn't have the salvia to spit in Hojo's face, and that was a pity. He was however able to smile, and that had the desired reaction.

Hojo punched Vincent in the face, Vincent could have snorted in contempt. A broken nose, he had worse on bar runs. Not to mention that Hojo had almost no muscle strength, if it wasn't for the fact that some of those needles seamed to be sucking the marrow and cartilage as well as fluids out of Vincent's body it wouldn't have achieved anything.

Surprisingly even though Vincent didn't have any saliva left, he did have blood to bleed from his wounds, which just showed him that with Hojo things always got worse. "You've lost everything! Your money, your job, any hope of ever making something of yourself, and soon I'll even steal away your ability to escape it through death!" If that was true, why was Vincent still smiling?

Somehow he managed to find enough strength to speak, and uttered his last words with complete conviction. "I did my job Doctor. I gave you a specimen that was the peak of physical fitness. I do so hope that you think of me every time you look in his eyes Doctor. This is Sephiroth Valentine, son of a bastard, born while his mother was married to a man other then his father, he will inherit the Planet!" Everything went black for Vincent as Hojo was unable to form coherent words. A Turk to the end, kicking, screaming, and bleeding blood that was at least 20 proof.

------

Melkore found the situation intolerable. He had been flown to a prison on HIS airship, to see HIS greatest creation built by OTHER people! People who where not him! People who didn't understand just how important a weapon had to be! Mass production was a powerful tool for the masses, but took the soul from a thing!

So he sat in his dark cell wishing he had Sylvia for two reasons. The most obvious one was that if he had Sylvia he wouldn't be sitting in this cell any more. The other reason was that strumming a few chords would help ease the incredible tension and indignation he felt at this situation. How dare they build HIS Mako Cannon without his explicit permission!

A certain part of Melkore wondered why they had built it once he could get past his artistic anger. The Mako Cannon had been designed as the ultimate finisher. It was made to attack and level cities from halfway across the Planet, what the hell did Shinra want with it now? It was unlikely that Melkore would be getting any answers sometime soon, or before he died, as he had a feeling that this definitely would be sometime soon.

It was happening right now apparently, the door to his cell was opening. A man stepped in pistol raised, Melkore was prepared going to expire in a blast of indigence, how dare they kill him in such an unceremonious way, he closed his eyes. "BLAM!" "BLAM!" BLAM!" "BLAM!" Dam this guy was a bad shot, Melkore didn't feel a thing.

Melkore opened his eyes and was about to demand that they find someone to kill him who at least wasn't cross-eyed, when he realized three things. The first one was that the person holding the gun was so unrecognizable that he could only be one person, Niro Rose. The second thing was that the bullets had snapped the chains round his hands, and legs. The third thing was that something familiar was strapped across Niro's back, something wonderfully familiar.

"About time, I thought you were going to let us rot in here or be killed by Shinra." Niro unstrapped Sylvia and tossed it to Melkore who caught his guitar like a long lost lover. Niro's smirk was painfully smug, but then he hadn't spent any time in a cell. "What can I say, capital punishment isn't up my alley."

Melkore carefully strapped Sylvia across his shoulder, turned off her safety and stood up glaring at Niro. "Are you nuts, it's the only sensible way to do things! It doesn't make economic sense to pay good money to keep convicted felons sheltered for the rest of their natural lives while law abiding people can't afford to retire!"

As Melkore walked out the door a group of guards were starting to rush through the single door into the cellblock area. Starting to, but didn't get very far before the strains of "Jail House Rock" and a flurry of bullets from Sylvia made a deep circular impression on them.

"Well take it on a case by case basis and we'll work it from there.

Sound fair Morningstar?" Melkore blew smoke from his six barrels and acquiesced, Niro clearly had a plan. "All right then, since you clearly know what's going on, enlighten me to which way is out." Niro smiled that smug smile as he stepped in front of Melkore, and reloaded his gun. "We can't leave just yet Melkore, there's something you have to take care of."

----

"Don't bother trying to talk to him girl, the thing you once knew no longer exists!" Across strands of wire, James and Mirri had no choice but to look each other in the eyes. James' eyes where still vacant, they showed no emotion, no pity, and no remorse. Mirri for her part showed no fear, no regrets, and no indecision in her eyes even she faced off against James.

James' right hand acted while his left kept his grip round Mirri's throat tight. Wires shot out from it in a single loop and wrapped around it's intended target. Hojo let out a scream of surprise and barely managed to let go of the test tube filled with Aeris' blood in time to avoid getting hurt as James' wires encircled it. James' wrist jerked, and the test tube flew back to him.

He raised it back and drank deeply from the vial. Despite Hojo's screams of protest he drank the entire container in silence, and then used his long feline like tongue to lick up any possible drops that he had missed. His task completed, he clenched his fist, crushing the testable. He let go of the glass shards that remained and allowed them to sprinkle themselves against the floor.

If James had any hand injuries, his red gloves made his blood impossible to see. Hojo shouted pleaded, and screamed, but James paid no attention. Then an index finger and thumb rose, and between them they held a life. "SNAP!" The small device came apart easily between the two forces exerted on it. He dropped it, and with the same graceful smooth motion he instantly snapped the wires from his left hand back into his gloves. As the lens hit the floor and shattered joining the glass of the vial, Hojo let out a piteous moan like one who has just watched his child killed.

"Just like they say, it's all fun and games till someone you know gets hurt." Hojo looked like he was about to say something, but he couldn't manage to get the words out through his all consuming rage. A moment later he had another impediment, James with his eyes once again bright red now had strands of white around Hojo's neck.

Still with difficulty, Hojo wheezed out one word. "Monster!" James just looked Hojo right in the eyes and shrugged. "Yeah Doctor, I get that a lot with my hat off. But you're the one accusing me for what I don't have any control over, while you willfully mutilate the bodies of others. So what does that make you? A representation of humanity, a mongrel, a monster?"

When Hojo tried to respond, James pulled slightly tighter. "Don't say anything Doctor, I think it's time for you to listen to someone else for a while. Oh and thanks for giving me the enhanced, speed, stamina, and whatnot. However, you almost ended the first of my nine lives, not to mention you seem to be building your life around making other people's worse instead of better, I suggest you consider a change in occupation."

After James made that dramatic announcement he took a moment to scratch his right ear with his right hand. "Hey Mirri, I'm not sure what's the best thing to do with this guy. So why don't you tell me how hard you want me to make it for him to breath?" "James we have a problem." James was still keeping his eyes locked on Doctor Hojo, who was just barely breathing. "What problem? I could gut this Doctor like a fish if I wanted to!"

"James, the problem isn't with him, it's with Aeris!" James turned around in surprise, and instantly agreed with Mirri, they had a problem. Where the table that Aeris had been held down by reinforced restraints used to be, there was now a pile of scrap metal. Immersed in that pile of scrap metal, as it had been necessary to claw, rend, and chew its way out was a wolf with brownish red fur.

Its freedom secured, it turned its gaze to Hojo, and James knew a desire to kill when he saw it. James released his wire and Hojo managed to get enough air into his lungs to scream in fear. The wolf leapt for Hojo, and James leapt for the wolf. He managed to catch it halfway and drag it to the ground. The wolf snapped at James and tried to scratch him with its claws, but its goal was to escape James rather than hurt him.

For his part, James managed to get a good firm grip around Aeris' neck and hold on for all he was worth, fighting franticly to impede her progress. Mirri watched this happen and then acted with complete serenity in a manner befitting the situation.

Dr. Hojo's joy at having James' wires no longer around his neck was short lived, to say the least. Regardless of the fact that Hojo's body was lying slumped over with a blade piercing it's skull so cleanly that the bridge of his glasses had been severed, and the two lenses hanging limply from his ears before falling to the ground, Aeris' rage wasn't lessened. She apparently wanted to rip Hojo's dead body limb from limb, and it was all James could do to stop her from doing so.

"Mirri, could you give me a hand? I can't use my wires or I might hurt her!" Mirri would always boast she knew James better then he knew himself, few people disputed it. "Use your tail." Understanding flashed in James' eyes, using a one handed grip for a few perilous moments he acted.

Reaching down into his red sweat pants he quickly grasped and removed his fifth limb and ace in the hole, whatever that meant, James wasn't sure. It was a makeshift harness to say the least, but with deft hands James' managed to slip his tail under Aeris' chin, and pass it over to his other hand to grasp. Then he gave a sharp pull on it, and to his extreme amazement, it worked.

Either Aeris was starting to get control of herself, or she reacted to the restraining motion instinctively. Or it could be that both her eyes were now focused on the flaming tuft of a tail that hung just inside her vision. Either way, it worked. Aeris finally started to give ground to James as he started to pull her body away from Hojo's corpse.

The more ground James gained the less Aeris struggled. When the group was finally over the threshold of the door (Mirri made sure to grab James' hat), Aeris let out a pitiful whimper, and finally stopped fighting. James let out a sigh of relief and returned his tail to its normal position with one hand while stroking Aeris behind the ears (an area that always worked for him) calmingly.

"Good girl Aeris, good girl. Now listen, revenge on a dead body doesn't help anybody, particularly if it means hanging around this place, okay?" It sounded perfectly normal to James, but Mirri would later claim it clearly wasn't any human language he was speaking.

But then maybe, just maybe, the idea of giving up hate in order to do the more intelligent thing, (the gap between them was very wide as James was able to easily tell which was a better choice) was universal. Or as Alex had realized before hand James was fairly passable when it came to speaking wolf.

-----

Vincent looked at his hands, such as they were. Had he ever been that strong? Had he ever been this weak? As a vampire he should be stronger then a human. As a vampire, he should do everything he wanted to do as a human. As a vampire, he could! He slowly sat up, feeling determination surge through his body regardless of age.

"I think I can get out of here, but need your blood. As hungry as I am right now, I might kill you." Alex finally stopped batting at his chains in desperation. /Do feel free to try Vampire. You are truly ignorant of your own history. Vampires were Cetra once, Cetra taken by Jenova and twisted until they drank blood and could not stand the light of day. They exist to kill us, and we Garou exist to kill them. A Garou's blood is exceptionally sweet to a vampire, and exceptionally potent, you will find I have more then you need in me. If you can get at it./

Vincent slowly stood up, his chains drawing tighter to keep him from moving, chains he was too weak to escape. "Come closer, Werewolf." Alex went back to pawing at his chains in desperation causing him to once again swing back and forth. /My parents told me a story when I was young. A story of a warrior whose name was forgotten but whose memory will never fade away. He was a great Get of Fenris, but in the end to save his pack he had to face forces of the Wyrm not even he could overcome.\

Alex drew slightly closer to Vincent as he swung more erratically, a leg, a neck, the chest, anything would do/The Wyrm's forces took him alive and forced a collar of silver around his neck, much as I have had, even though he continued to kill them as they slipped it on him, much as I have. The Wyrm wanted to punish him, defile him, she wanted to turn him into a vampire. The Wyrm's strongest vampires were gathered in one place to make the transformation possible. Each of them took their fill of his blood before adding some of their own to his body.\

Alex swung one last time and Vincent lunged. He moved to the extent that his chains would let him, and though his hands and legs had no grip, his teeth managed to sink themselves in Alex's neck pushing through fur and skin. Unlike all of his other victims, Alex did not become delirious as Vincent drank his blood, instead he continued the story.

/When he awoke the warrior's fur had turned snow white, like the skin of the vampire, and as he looked at his creators with red eyes, eyes that remembered who had been, he felt anger grow in his un-beating heart. The Wyrm's strongest vampires, all gathered against one being, and yet they shivered in fear, suddenly realizing what they had done, they had not defiled the warrior, they had made him stronger. The warrior killed them, massacred them, every single one of them, ripping them to pieces with his bare hands, no longer even needing his claws.

He tore their heads from their necks and took back his blood along with that of the Wyrm's strongest vampires. With each one he killed the vampires felt fear turn their blood cold, for they knew they were doomed. They tried to flee into the shadows, but the warrior followed them, because he was a vampire as well. Every single one of the Wyrm's strongest vampires died, most piteously screaming for mercy to the one whom they had showed none.

The warrior emerged in bright sunlight, the kind that will burn the skin from a vampire's bones in seconds. His fur was thick however, and the sun didn't touch his skin, he was unhurt. He returned to his pack, and they knew him, just as he remembered them. They accepted him, and though he could no longer eat meat he still hunted with the pack, and took down prey for them.

He would suck his kills dry of blood before handing them over to his pack. The wolves would fight each other, no one ever died, but they would fight each other for a chance to say they had taken bites from one of his bloodless corpses. He never died, only became so powerful that he was called to keep Fenris company, and he weakened the chains that held him.

No pack other then a Get of Fenris one would have accepted the warrior, they would have turned on him and killed him for he would not have killed his own kind. The warrior is our hero, he represents everything the Get of Fenris stand for; striking at the Wyrm with every weapon we have, and making them fear us like no one else. In my family, we know that we are descendants of the warrior, that one whose blood was pure enough to survive the foulest taint.

To this day those who serve the Wyrm still dread the word 'Barghest', and the Get of Fenris revere his memory. Translated into Get it means what it is, like all proper Get words, a Garou who is also a vampire. However, in the corrupted original language that it was first spoken in that terrified shrieks of vampires who had thought themselves immortal and were about to learn otherwise, it had other meanings. In Wyrm like most Wyrm words it has many meanings.

Meanings that can be taken in many directions onto infinity, and not even its known definitions make much sense. In Wyrm I would say 'Barghest' means 'the one who remembers.' Do you not wish to show these pathetic humans who try to hold us the power of the Barghest, Vincent?\

Vincent would have responded, but he was too busy at the moment. Alex was right, Vincent was thirsty enough to drink a well dry, but Alex's blood was an ocean. He was not a virgin, but it didn't matter. Not even his... son's blood could compare with this. It was ecstasy. It wasn't just sustenance, it was more then that. It was pure undulating bliss to the extent that Vincent expected James to appear floating before him as the world lost focus.

Vincent broke away before he wanted to, but he just couldn't take any more of it, he was full regardless of how much longer he wanted it to go on. Vincent pulled his fang's from Alex and managed to lick his wounds closed, as a surge of something much more tangible then determination filled him.

Even connected to the wall, the chains had no chance against Vincent's overflowing strength. The wall would not break, so the manacles themselves snapped from Vincent's limbs, even the reinforced one on his left hand. "You know Alex, there's a strength to being human. You don't have to care about tomorrow, you can abuse the system all you want because you'll be dead before it matters. You don't have this fing ever present knowledge that tomorrow would be another day that you'll be alive, instead you were surprised that you had survived as long as you had."

As Vincent spoke he got to work on Alex's chains, rending them apart with more ease than he had his own. Alex managed to land on all fours as Vincent freed him from the last chain. "I mean look at us Alexander. We're in a tactically hopeless situation. Our commander is gone, we're all locked up in cells in the middle of an enemy military base, the sensible thing to do would be roll over and die."

/What would be the human response to this situation?\ Vincent smiled as he rubbed his hands together even with the disparity in size. "As a human I'd say we get drunk, kick some ass, die screaming like idiots and spitting obscenities after taking rounds in the gut and watching the life slowly drain from our bodies. If we survive the only reverence we show is that we make sure to piss on the graves of all the people we kill. Come on Alex in the spirit of things that vampires and wolves have in common, Carpe Jugulum!"

It was inspiring sentiment, but came just short of being fully translatable from human to werewolf. /I think you are right, this problem requires a human approach no matter how odd that approach is. Scent marking graves? Is that how you humans announce to others who was responsible for someone's death?\ Vincent didn't bother trying to explain it to Alex, he turned his attention to the heavy iron door before them.

"I think I can go to shadows and open it from the other side." "No need!" The words where twisted, as if spoken in a voice that wasn't quite human. Turning around, Vincent understood why. Alex was no longer a six and a half foot wolf standing on four legs.

He was a ten foot tall creature, half wolf, half human, wholly monstrous, standing on two legs, his arms boasting of muscles that looked right for wrestling Vlakorados for fun. Of course that ignored the dagger-like claws that tipped each digit. Alex had to crouch slightly to fit into the cell, and Vincent couldn't help but whistle. You just didn't see things that screamed "DEATH" as loudly as this thing did these days.

Vincent stood aside and Alex approached the door. "This is the Crinos form. Translated from Get that's 'Destroyer', as I said, Get of Fenris words are what they are, unlike human languages. I've been reserving this for a most dangerous situation, like this one. Let it begin!"

The door was designed to be incredibly difficult to move, but that was designed with human beings in mind. No matter how much humans planned in advance, they couldn't have predicted the door facing what Vincent now saw. Alex grabbed the door, and without much difficulty at all, ripped it off its hinges. Then as the two guards on the other side raised their weapons in surprise, Alex threw the door at one of them.

The blow was akin to hitting an egg with a sledgehammer, the guard hit by it was slammed up against a wall and his body crushed in half. The second man started shooting at Alex in helpless fear. His bullets were lead 9MM, shooting at Alex's with such rounds was akin to hunting dragons with a rusty spork. The bullets hit Alex, but if they even managed to penetrate his hide, they where almost instantly pushed back out as he regenerated.

With a single slash Alex easily separated the guard's body into several pieces. Vincent normally would have had to stop and lick up the blood before he could continue. This time he didn't however, he was already full from Alex's blood. He was full, and that made him free.

Wolves were only dangerous when they where hungry, Vincent had finally escaped the cycle of feeding and sleeping, he was full, he could do whatever he wanted. He grabbed both of his guns from the wall, they were still loaded and ready for action. "To whatever end, Alex." "For Blood and Glory, for Fenris, and for our Alpha!"

-----

The huge monster headed for Junon base like a giant shark cutting through the water. The Junon defense system was not completely compromised, but it was weakened. Every possible guard and SOLDIER rushed forward to fight the thing with any weapon they had.

The thing was gigantic beyond measure, how could anything possibly stop it? Junon's costal guns fired, and the batteries that hit the thing seemed to at least slow it down but did not stop it. It rose out of the water, and stared directly into the face of the huge Mako cannon as it's claws began to rend through the base's walls.

-----

The guards were already dead, so Niro didn't bother to avoid stepping on them. When they had been "captured" escape had been simplicity itself for him. Seven captives walk in, six and a guard walk out. Unless Shinra did a complete check of every single person who worked for them they had no chance of finding Niro.

Thus he had plenty of time to scout out the base and plan his escape with Melkore. "What is this place?" Unlike Niro Melkore took time to avoid stepping on the dead bodies.

Niro smiled as he looked around. "The Shinra defence grid is currently down. Secondary systems have come on line, but the Mako Cannon is a new addition, it doesn't have a back up wired into the secondary system. All it has is this thing, a manual fire button, or lever in this case. That thing out there is determined to tear this base to shreds, no real loss, but then it will move onto the city. Dr. Melkore, how would you like to save the city of Junon?"

Melkore's eyes misted over, as he approached the lever. "Niro, I shouldn't have to tell you that this is the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me. It's time to test fire Melkore's Mako Cannon! Forget saving the city of Junon, it's time to reduce this giant monster to a pile of slag! FIRE ONE!" Melkore pulled down the lever, and waited for the shot that would be heard round the world.

-----

The huge shell was already loaded into the barrel. The pulling of the lever caused a huge hammer to slam into the huge shell just like any other gun. The only difference was that the shell was glowing green, and when the hammer struck it, the thing burst to life like a jet engine. The WEAPON had been looking down the barrel to start with, it had investigated further to see why it was suddenly making such strange sounds.

The thing saw a bright flash of light, and then it saw nothing. The WEAPON had been designed to destroy entire armies of Jenova beings and fight Jenova herself. Melkore's Mako Cannon had been built with the idea that a single round from it could destroy all of Shinra HQ. The scale fit perfectly.

The WEAPON, minus one head, fell backwards and sank beneath the waves.

-----

Melkore pumped his arm decisively and hugged Sylvia tightly to him as he watched what happened over a video monitor. "TAKE THAT NATURE! MANKIND WINS

AGAIN!" He turned to Niro, eyes full of appreciation. "If you were in the shape of a woman right now I would kiss you! I can die a happy man having seen that happen, my life has been justified! My desires fulfilled! My magnum Opus completed! My masterpiece revealed to the world! My..."

Niro whistled, cutting Melkore off. The room was very near the top of the Junon base, and the ceiling had been torn off by the WEAPON'S claws. As Niro whistled, (it was now possible since there was no roof) a rope ladder was lowered directly into the room. Melkore looked up, and his eyes misted over again.

He adjusted Sylvia so that it was strapped across his back and hugged Niro tight enough to make it hard for him to breath. Halfway through, he spoke through gritted teeth. "If you ever tell ANYONE about this, I swear I will KILL you." Then Melkore grabbed the rope and started to climb up. Niro coughed and grabbed the bottom rung of the rope. "I thought you'd like it."

-----

They had moved through a lot of the base killing as they went. James and Mirri were at the forefront with Aeris following on all fours. Just after James had dispatched a group of guards, he stopped where he stood. He removed his hat, and scratched his left ear with his left hand. "Niro's calling. Mirri, we need to get outside!"

Mirri glared at James, they where almost out of the base, they had come to the T section they had crossed once before. The way out was right before them, to the left a door lead outside. Mirri looked back no one was following them, random chance was better then no chance, that was what they had if the elevator had no power and it probably did.

James rushed out the door, and was instantly struck without words for one of the few times in his life. Niro "stood" before them, hanging onto a ladder suspended from the deck of the Valar. "Good to see you James, Mirri, and Aeris I presume? The Valar has recently had a change of management, it is once again in the hands of its creator where it belongs. Would you guys like a ride?"

-----

"I never though this would happen Vincent." Alex had taken a human form for the reason that there was no one else to kill. Taking Crinos form seemed to have long-term effects on his human form: its customary hunter-green clothing had been replaced by combat boots, jeans, a close-fitting black T-shirt, and lifting gloves. His hair was unbound and fell across his face and shoulders, and he absentmindedly tossed a looted combat knife from one hand to the other.

From their special cell in the basement of the base they had fought all the way up to where they now stood on the top of the Mako Cannon. The two looked down on the waters below and the city as well. "Tell me Alex, do your people say that Vampires can fly?" "Like bats." Vincent looked down at the water which was so far below them and so deep. "Think I can fly?" Alex looked up at the sky; it was about as close to noon as it could be. "Not a chance. We'll fall like stones." "Think we'll die?" "That's debatable. You're already dead, and I refuse to die to anything less than a worthy opponent."

"Think we'll survive?" "I'll pull your body from the water myself, so that I might have the honor of killing you." "If I was smart, I would turn to shadows and escape that way." "If I was free to make my choices I would go back to killing until I drown in their blood."

"So, since that's out of the question, what with them all already being dead, let's jump." "Actually if you guys were smart you'd listen to me. Though, it is nice to see you getting along." The Valar now hung poised over the top of the Mako Cannon, Niro having just lowered himself down from it by a rope ladder before Vincent and Alex.

"So do you guys want to survive?" The Valar lowered slightly so that Vincent and Alex could grab hold of the rope ladder. "So it looks like we're not going to die after all." "I'm still dead Alex." "You have my sympathies." "I don't need them."

"You'd be surprised how many things you need, Vincent." "Since when did you two start calling each other by first names instead of by race?" "We had communion with each other. We broke bread and drank wine." "By which Alex means we broke bones and drank blood." "So nice to see we're all one big happy Midain family, James is gonna love this."

End chapter

FN: That was a ride and a half wasn't it? The version of Death portrayed in this chapter belongs to Terry Pratchett. That said, wow, I don't have anything else to say, I guess this chapter just really speaks for itself.

OWAN: Says him… Sorry again for the delay, and thanks for your patience. We'll probably be able to get the next chapter up in less than a month, and we've certainly got a ways to go. This has been your Diversity Sensitivity chapter.


	26. Chapter 26

Twilight Perfection

Chapter 26 It's so lonely round the fields of Athenry.

FN: "Fields of Athenry" is the name of a song, the covered version of which by Dropkick Murphy's I have heard. All of the lines associated with particular characters come from the song. This chapter may seem slightly fractured, and I guess it is. But basically it was meant to be read, of all of the characters and their thoughts (most of which center on Sephiroth) right after their escape from Junon.

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By a lonely prison wall. (Niro)

-----

"I was only following orders."

It's one of the first things that humans learn how to say, and it's meaning is clear. It means that you weren't directly responsible for whatever you did, as if anyone would believe that. The phrase gives no clues who gave the orders nor does it matter, there's always someone higher up. You can trace through an entire army like that, each person saying they were only following the orders of leader above them.

Then you get to the person who should by all rights be in charge, but he says he was only following orders of the politicians. The politicians say they were only following orders of the people who elected them. If there aren't any politicians you go to a king, and he says he's just following the orders of god. I think that if god had some orders to give, he would let everyone know instead of just those in power.

Humanity needs to get over themselves and realize that the ability to "think" (an ability only possessed by a few of them) should mean they have to take responsibility. But humanity evidently disagrees with me, they want to have their cake and eat it to. Have the ability to think, yet kill each other for reasons that animals don't even care about. How is it that humanity can keep claiming innocence while blood drips down their fingers?

Of course I've killed a lot of people, but what do I care, I'm not human. If you aren't me then your life's value is practically negligible, that's the way your average human mind works, I just got rid of the "practically". I won't say I'm following orders, even though to a certain extent I am, because I was told to join these people, which I have. True or not, it's still a pathetic, human excuse. I have a better one.

I'm not following orders, I'm a thinking being, I don't have to follow if I don't want to, or at least now I don't. That makes me a higher form of life then you pathetic human worms, who somehow believe that because you where given an order you have to follow it. If humanity is incapable of resisting an order they have been given, then what right have they to call themselves sentient? With that in mind, what makes a human life worth any more or less then that of an ant?

Sephiroth understood that, if you traced the "I followed orders" up to him, he would tell you that he gave the orders. I'll never believe anyone who says Sephiroth had an inflated ego because he thought the world rotated around him, he was a realist. He was General, the world did rotate around him, and he realized it, and acted accordingly.

Sephiroth understood that if he just followed orders it would make him no better then what he fought. Of course he only realized that because he had followed orders for most of his life, and is only now realizing what it means to be a sentient being. He deserved to live more of his life like that, everyone does, in theory. But too many humans seem to resist sentience, falling in line is a safer way to live. So humans huddle together like sheep, and then moan and blame the wolves that prey on them for their own suffering.

How pathetic, so far beneath me that it's unworthy of pity, they deserve my contempt. Humanity thinks that just because their ancestors managed to claw their way to the top of the evolutionary ladder that they can just sit there in comfort, the complacent fools. Evolution is always moving, you stand still you get left behind. Even if it's because evolution has been given a jump-start like me, like James. James is sterile, or at least he can't conceive because he's the only member of his race.

I'm not, If I take a human form, the chromosomes line up. I'm not sure what it is about me that lets me shift, that lets me slam new DNA into place like a cartridge into a rifle and watch the effects, but it might be genetic. My children (if I ever have any) might be able to shift like I can. I hope you realize that humanity, I hope you realize that you have to keep moving as fast as you can just to stay where you are.

Sephiroth was a better representation than humanity disserved. He was able to break out of his cycle, stop following orders and listen to his own mind. Hell, just because James' genetic code has been shot to pieces along with all the people who actually made him, doesn't mean it can't be done again. You should get down on your knees and worship Sephiroth, humans; he was out there fighting for your entire race.

But you don't like to worship fighters any more, not when fighting effects you. Shinra, you don't have the right to do the things you've done to humanity. You've made them go soft, both in the body and in the mind, that goes against the laws of evolution. You'll destroy humanity if you keep this up, just look at Meteor. For Sephiroth, so that humanity will keep fighting, I'll burn you to the ground. Life would be too boring otherwise.

----

I herd a young girl calling (Mirri)

--------

"You look a little bit young for a SOLDIER." Mirri "Catwarrior" Lufkin was 18 years old, as of a few weeks ago. She was tall for a girl, but at 21 years old, General Sephiroth towered over her. He didn't have bulging muscles, in fact he looked rather lanky, as if he had grown too tall a touch too fast. But then, this was a man who had killed countless people; the ice in his eyes and the long sword strapped to his back were testament to that fact.

The word "deference" was not in Mirri's vocabulary, "respect" was, however. "General Sir, I'm 18 years old, you're three years older then me and you've been fighting in this war for four years. I'll congratulate you on graduating your training at the same age I started mine." A pair of green eyes not used to being disobeyed met a pair of green eyes not used to being cowed. Mirri's words were not to be taken as a compliment and they both knew it.

It was an incredibly taboo subject to mention among Shinra, most of whom at the moment thought that Sephiroth could walk on water, but it was true that Sephiroth had been given no training. He had no patronage, no parents, no family; he had just arrived one day and started fighting till he had reached the rank of general.

He had turned around a war that Shinra had been losing badly despite better weapons and more men. He looked Mirri up and down again, she had reached the rank of first class SOLDIER entirely through training and had yet to have a baptism of fire, and Sephiroth knew it, and didn't like it. "General, if you didn't know, I come from Corel." That of course got no reaction, Sephiroth would have known it and known what it meant.

"I know of course that neither you nor Shinra was responsible for what happened, the people of Corel were. I moved out before it happened, and find myself more at home in Midgar then I ever did in Corel." "Why?" Sephiroth was pacing around her while Mirri had to stay perfectly still, but Mirri expected this and didn't let it unnerve her.

"Because I love Sector Six. If a man mistakes me for a harlot instead of a SOLDIER I can cut his balls off, beat him to a bloody pulp throw him in a dumpster, and nobody cares. I love living in a world where I'm free to do whatever I want to people who annoy me and nobody cares. The only thing possibly better then that for me is war, because killing isn't only allowed, but encouraged."

Sephiroth met her eyes looking down at her from his height. "You're an amoral sadist." Mirri stayed perfectly still, kept her voice neutral. "I find those words without insult, General, simply an accurate description of my views. I also would wish to point out that the goal of war is to hurt the other side. Thus, a sadist would seem to be exactly what you need. As for morals, I find they have more to do with children's stories then the real world. I have my views, and I believe in keeping them."

Sephiroth's eyes hardened at this, but Mirri continued. "I also would like to say sir, that my traits are only shocking to you because I'm female. If you bothered to examine most men you would find a great many of them are amoral sadists. If you wish further proof you could accompany me into Sector Six from a good distance some time. A great many men like to pleasure themselves at the expense of women, to the point that it is accepted by society and given a name.

I simply believe that turnabout is fair play. As a first class SOLDIER my strength, speed, and stamina far surpass any normal human's. It's no more fair for a man to corner a women in a dark alley then it is for me to lift that man over my head, and snap his spine with my bare hands. The women has as about as much chance against a group of men like the one I mentioned before, as does a group of the guys friends when they try to help their pal and end up getting sliced apart by my blades.

If you chose to see this interpretation of my amoral sadism as a crime, I chose to see it as a very fitting brand of justice. Sir, some people have incorrectly told me that I hate the entire male sex, those people are incorrect. The men who say such are usually men who have attempted to gain my affections through means not severe enough to make me harm them."

Sephiroth went back to pacing around Mirri. "You realize that we can't have you harming my own men." "Sir, if your men have proper military discipline there should be no reason for me to harm them. Also, first class SOLDIERS recover from wounds much more quickly. I can assure you, if I kill any of them, then I'm doing a service to Shinra." "If I might be frank Mirri, what did you psychological record have to say?"

"Sir, my psyche examinations was given to me by a woman, and I also happen to have spent some of my time studying psychology. We had a fun time discussing the castration complex, and I got a rubber stampeded perfectly suited for combat." Sephiroth stopped again and glared at Mirri, more disapproving of Shinra's practices than of her in particular. "So you got lucky." "Sir, getting lucky is what keeps you alive in combat. Don't you agree?"

Sephiroth gave Mirri one final look and raised his eyebrow just the slightest fraction. "So your suggesting I rubber stamp you ready for combat, and hope you get lucky?" "Not at all, sir!"

Mirri's perfectly still posture instantly gave way to fluid motion. Blades instantly sprung from her otherwise unremarkable white gloves. She stepped towards Sephiroth who still had his hands in front of him, his blade on his back, and no effective way to stop her. Her left hand was caught less than an inch from his neck, and her right was ready to plunge into his chest and rip out any organ she wanted to. Then, her universe hiccoughed. Sephiroth's left hand caught her under the chin and flung her headlong at the wall. Mirri pivoted in midair and landed with both feet flat on the wall, then leapt, landing effortlessly in front of him. She continued, her voice still flat and matter-of-fact.

"General, I'm not just lucky, I'm good. The problem with most amoral sadists is that they spend too much time taking pride in hurting others and not enough perfecting how to hurt. That, and they set their sights too low, they settle for hurting too few people. There's an entire army out there for me to mutilate, masticate, spit back out, and then swallow whole. The possibilities make me downright giddy! You see, that's another failing of most amoral sadists, they aren't opportunists, and insist on seeking out people to hurt. I find that I can gather a fine collection of potential victims around me, just by being myself." Sephiroth regarded her for a moment, then turned and left, saying "No more rubber stamps, only wings. Welcome to the choir, Seraph."

----

Mirri looked out at what was left of Corel from a good distance. You didn't go close to people who wanted to kill you. "General, it was a pleasure to serve you in this lifetime, and any others to come. I swear I'll give Shinra one for you, even if it means I have to give them one less for me. And don't worry, Lufkins have beaten Shinra before, we'll do it again."

---------

"Where once we once watched the free birds flying." (Melkore)

------

"Welcome to the Valar, the greatest ship formerly at Shinra's disposal!" It was the greatest ship, and Melkore wasn't just saying that because he made the plans for it. Nor was he saying that just because he had personally overseen the work to build the ship. He also wasn't saying that because he had commanded that ship once before, and was doing it again! He was saying it because he had done all three of those things! He was now in command of the Valar once again, and he would be kicking the crap out of Shirna, something he always wanted to do with this ship!

Its armaments consisted of several side mounted rapid fire cannons to get rid of monsters that bothered the Valar. It had front mounted missiles to destroy heavier targets. It had room for lots and lots of troops not to mention lots and lots of supplies. Thus the group didn't have any need for roommates. Which didn't stop Melkore from asking Mirri about the possibility.

Sadly Mirri had countered this with a ploy that Melkore had expected. Okay it hadn't been the one he had totally expected. He had expected Mirri to say okay, then proceed to take her "claws" and draw a territorial line that split the room in half. This would possibly be followed with what Alex would call "scent marking" but Melkore could think of a lot of other names. As it turned out, Mirri had already chosen James to be her roommate, and so no territorial lines were needed, James had already been marked as Mirri's.

Mirri may like to think of herself as a female cat, but she knew that most others thought of her as a female dog. Normally, being so thoroughly thwarted would be incredibly annoying to Melkore, but this time he got over it quickly. He had his ship back. You just didn't get your ship and get to use your greatest weapon in one day most of the time. He had everything he wanted, now he wanted to do some damage with it. Sephiroth would have wanted it this way.

-------

Our love was on the wing, we had dreams and songs to sing. (James)

-------

The cell was supposed to be soundproof, but it wasn't airtight, and thus James' ears let him hear anything he wanted to. He wasn't truly interested in hearing what the other were saying outside, at least not while he was busy. He was very busy at the moment, tracing a ball of yarn all the way back to its starting point, at which point it was no long a ball of yarn but a very long string.

Still James did keep an ear open to conversation, he was naturally curious. "How is he doing?" "Good, same as always." "Aggression levels?" "Same as always, they almost never leave the blue." "seratonin production?" "Still going strong." "So he's happy?" "More or less." "Sorry it's just..."

"You expected something like Sephiroth." "Who didn't?' "He isn't Sephiroth, he isn't even human." "He's more human then Sephiroth ever seemed to be." "But he isn't." "Goddammit, that's the problem, do you realize what it means?" "We've succeeded."

"Yes, but what next? Not just one subject, but more, commando squads of them for high risk assignments. Armies of him to save human life. Then why not use them for any task that requires manual labor? He's stronger then most humans, his metabolism is more effective, and he's not human. Then what happens next? So his aggression level is low, people can only be pushed so far. Sooner or later if we create an entire working class of people like him just to pick up trash we toss on the ground, they won't stand for it." "He isn't a person."

"He isn't human, that doesn't make him any less humane. He doesn't disserve to have this done to him, and sooner or later all humanity will pay for it." "If that happens we'll be long dead by then." "We can only hope. Maybe we should just kill him, destroy all this lab and tell Shinra we failed." "Actually, I've got another suggestion. I kill all of you, destroy all the equipment, and let him go."

"GENERAL SEPHIROTH!" "Yes gentlemen, reports of my demise have been greatly exaggerated." "What the hell are you doing hearrrrrrrrrghhhhhhhhhhh." The question turned into a scream, which turned into a gurgle. James slowly dropped his ball of yarn and watched it bounce across the floor, whatever was happening was important, he knew it somehow. There was a great silence that followed, and finally that new voice spoke again.

"I'm afraid that it will be your turn next doctor, not that I care." "Thank you." "Why?" "Because you gave me a way out. In fact, there's a poetic justice about it. You could probably take care of him better then anyone else. I'll die happy knowing that." "He doesn't need to be taken care of, he's a killer." "Say that when you meet him."

There was a very long silence, and then slowly the door opened. The man on the other side was a lot different from the doctor's James had been used to seeing. He was taller then the tallest of the doctors, and he wore black instead of white. The really long sword in his hand looked pretty threatening, too. James wanted to dive for his ball of yarn, it would be nice to hold it. That, or a squeaky rubber mouse.

This guy was impressive, and there was no other word for it. He looked down at James, not just because James was sitting down, but something odd was in his eyes. It was if he was piercing James' skin, bones, blood, and everything else he had. "Do you have a name?" James met those incredibly powerful green eyes, and gave the only answer he could. "Shinra official commando in training, model S. Reference code, 31888, JF, later designated as James Firecat. Who are you?"

The man raised an eyebrow in a mix between accusation and surprise. "I am General Sephiroth." "Shortened to Seph." It was a natural thing to James. Most people had first names only one or two syllables long. Sephiroth, that was how many long? Three? Four? He would have to count to be sure. Seph-ir-oth? That was three, at least, and "Sephir" didn't make any sense as a name so cut it down at the first syllable, just Seph.

Seph was doing that thing where he looked at James with those cold piercing green eyes, and even if James was wearing clothes he felt naked as the day he was born. Actually that wasn't such a good analogy, James had been made in a scientific version of a womb filled with mako, and had come out of it already wearing the clothes he wore. So, naked as the day most people were born.

James missed almost all of what Seph said but managed to catch the tail end of it. "Would you like to come with me?" James said what he thought about the entire situation. "Why not, sounds like fun!"

----

James removed his hat and held it over his heart, one of the few gestures which being left handed meant you got right if you did it with your natural hand. He looked down at the world below from the deck of the Valar, and smiled sadly. "It's not so fun any more Seph, but I won't let that stop me."

-----

Nothing matters to me while you're free. (Aeris)

----

Aeris had made sure to find James before she left the Valar. It wasn't that hard, Mirri may have gotten off near Corel, but James didn't have anywhere to go so he was still standing on the deck of the Valar. "James, about back in the lab?" James instantly spun, he had his hat in his left hand and his left ear cocked inquisitively towards Aeris. "What about back in the lab?"

Aeris summed up all her strength and spoke. "What Hojo did to you, was it like when Jenova attacked Sephiroth's mind?" The right ear cocked forward joining the left, which James took a moment to scratch. "I wouldn't know I'm not Seph...iroth, but I don't think so from what he told me. From what he told me, when Jenova hit him it was like being kicked between the legs, over and over again. With me, I just woke up and everything was 'blah' like watching the world without colors. Sorta like Alex sees it, I guess."

James slowly slipped his hat over his ears after he finished that statement. Aeris wasn't truly sure why she needed to know, but she could' stop herself. "Is that all? Then why did you listen to what Doctor Hojo said?" Even with his hat on, James managed to scratch his right ear with his right hand. "My mind wasn't working like that at the time, the question it was asking was 'why not?' So I just did it." "Why didn't you help me, James?"

Incredibly bright red eyes instead of incredibly dull ones, but eyes nonetheless unable to understand. They where not the dull eyes that had shown nothing while the hands killed five people, but they where just as unaware of fear or pain. The voice agreed with what the eyes had to say completely. "Well you weren't really in any danger. I couldn't use my wires to cut through the table without hurting you, so there wasn't any way I could free you, so I didn't."

How could you explain fear to child, how did you explain hatred? "James, you shouldn't have held me back, I knew what I was doing. Doctor Hojo didn't die from what Melkore did to him, he wouldn't have died from what Mirri did." "Don't worry about it Aeris, if we ever see him again, I swear to you I'll, just schkkkkkkk... his head right off!" Aeris wasn't sure if she detested herself or James more right then. As James spoke that word that had no meaning he made a dramatic gesture with his hands, with a result that Aeris the results of quite well if wires had been streaming from his gloves. She stood there looking at James and slowly asked her next question.

"When Mirri came in, why did you attack her?" Aeris slowly came to realize that if eyes where bright enough, they showed as little as empty ones. "For fun. We used to spar a lot when I had my scythe, but we haven't since I got my gloves. We always stopped when one of us had the other in a deathlock, though I almost never won. Whenever I was about to lose Mirri would say 'James don't make me kill you' and I would go slack."

Something that Aeris would have known and probably should have realized if she had paid more attention to either of them. "Why did you drink my blood?" Bright eyes, and childish logic. "Well I knew that one way or another nothing good could come from what Hojo wanted to do with it. That's why I was ready to stop him anytime he moved to hurt you. I figured there wasn't any way I could stop Shinra from getting even the smallest fraction of your blood at first.

But then I thought about something Vincent once told me, I think it was 'Never compromise your goals because of what you think you can't do.' So thinking about that, I wondered what Vincent would do in this situation, and then the answer was sort of obvious." Aeris took a moment to realize, that James hadn't feared for his life at any point in the entire escape.

"Thanks for helping us get out." "No problem, what are friends for? Besides it was really Mirri who did everything. She was the one who was locked in a cell wearing chains and separated from her weapons. I had my wires on me, an increase in my already impressive mako levels and Jenova cells count to play with, and was ready to leave as soon as I woke up." There was just one more question that Aeris had to ask before she could allow herself to be torn away from this conversation.

"James, how where you able to fight it off? Hojo said that thing he had on you made you dead to the world, and you looked just like it!" James smiled as he answered, a smile of supreme confidence. "Well it's like this Aeris. When everything was all 'blah' I couldn't really feel anything more then I could see anything. Except that there was something that seeing Mirri sparked in me. Something that told me I needed to tear that thing off my ear, and rip the entire base apart with my bare hands if I had to." Aeris couldn't keep bitterness out of her last question.

"Was it love?" James instantly shook his head so violently that, between the shakes and the wind blowing across the deck of the Valar, his hat came off. "Love? What's love? I've never been able to tell, myself, it's far too complicated, and this thing I felt was so simple, that even like I was, I grasped it instantly. It was blindingly simple, there wasn't any way that I could argue with it, even the way I was. It was loyalty." Aeris turned around and slowly began to walk off, not sure how she felt. Perhaps there were more kinds of purity in this world then she had ever thought beforehand.

-------

Mideel was a nice place for Aeris to stop and think. The town was left off more then a few maps and she had discovered it by accident, but it was where it should have been. It was on an island, and only could be reached by ship, or airship in this case. Thus Aeris was fairly certain nobody would recognize her by sight here, and it was so peaceful. "Sephiroth, do you see me?"

She knew that if anyone bothered to pay a lot of attention to her, she would look crazy, but she didn't care. When she was younger she used to hear people say she was crazy because the Planet's voice would strike her with more force. "Sephiroth, did you see me?" It wasn't that implausible, if Aeris could talk with the Planet itself through the Lifestream it was possible she could talk with a spirit in the Lifestream.

"Did you see how strong I was, Sephiroth?" Maybe it was a foolish thing to say regarding the situation when she looked over it a second time. James, Mirri and Niro had done most of the work. James and Mirri in breaking out and Niro in securing the Valar for the group. Even as they were breaking out, James and Mirri had done most of the fighting. James' wires and Mirri's blades had proved far more suitable for dealing with SOLDIERS and guards in corridors then Aeris' teeth and claws would have.

Particularly James' wires, in enclosed spaces he was able to tear through men who had spent more time training for combat then James had even been alive with no trouble at all. Just a smooth toss and twist, and men died before they even realized what killed them, which was probably a blessing. Still, unlike the last time in the City of the Ancients it stuck with Aeris.

She could feel it now, feel the silver light waiting or her to grasp it if she ever wanted to. Now she was sure that she could grasp anything Alex wanted to teach her, she knew the language, learning words was easy. "Sephiroth, I'm sorry that I couldn't kill Hojo for you. You're right, if there ever was a person who deserved to die, it was him. I promise I'll spend time with Alex so that I can learn and grow even stronger.

I promise that next time, Hojo won't get away from me. I promise that next time, next time I'll avenge you Sephiroth. I promise you I'll grow stronger, so that you won't have to worry about needing someone looking over my shoulder. I promise that I'll get stronger so that Shinra won't be able to make me serve them. Sephiroth, you gave everything you had to keep me safe. I promise you your sacrifice won't be for nothing, I will get stronger."

----

"Against the famine and the crown, I rebel, they cut me down." (Alex)

----

Alex was alone at the mouth of Cosmo Canyon. Looking down at the rock and stone that his parents had given their lives to defend. Looking down, he felt the pride that he would have a chance to commit deeds to equal the ones of those who had come before.

The huge rock in the sky signified many things, not the least of which was that one way or another things would come to a head. Very soon now, Fenris would shake lose from his chains and the entire world would be consumed in battle. It would be wonderful.

To himself, Alex repeated the time honored Get of Fenris creed, which had been uttered countless time before they marched off to battle. He said it out loud in respect for their fallen alpha. Echoing both parts of the creed back at himself.

"Who are we?" "We are the descendants of Fenris whose howl shakes the world! We are the Get of Fenris!" "Then I ask you, Get of Fenris, what do you hold in your right hand?" "In our right hand we hold the flame of Helios to burn the Wyrm and her servants to ash!" "Very well then Get of Fenris, what do you hold in your left hand?" "In our left hand we hold a blade forged of pure silver to strike down those of our number who would heed the Wyrm's poisoned words!"

"Yes, we are the Get of Fenris! Those who believe in the teachings of Gaia without following them! We are those who serve Gaia most faithfully, by not serving her at all! With the scent of death around us we enter battle to kill and be killed without fear or remorse! Only lowering our heads to Gaia to worship her with a growl of respect! Only raising our heads to the moon to worship her with a howl of victory!

Our fur soaked red with the blood of all those we have slain, we kill at every chance in every way! When the time shall come and it is needed we will drive our own silver blade into our chest to end our lives! Then our spirits line up to do battle with the 7,405,926 deamons of the Wyrm!

We are the Get of Fenris, Gaia favors us with her greatest gifts, and in return, WE KEEP THE LIFESTREAM STOCKED WITH FRESH SOULS! RAGNAROK NOW!" As Alex roared those last lines from his human mouth, he smiled. He would do Fenris proud, or he would die trying. Not that those two possibilities were mutually exclusive.

----

Now you must raise our child with dignity (Vincent)

-----

Stepping through the waterfall was more difficult than ever but Vincent accomplished it. The water poured down on him and made him very glad that his boots were waterproof. Even if they hadn't been he could afford to have the soil he lined his boots soles with get wet at the moment. His coffin was only a short walk (for a vampire) away in Nibelhiem, and it was practically filled to the brim with soil

Yes, Hojo had been so kind to obtain all that Wutian soil just for Vincent, so that he could suffer for eternity in luxury. If Hojo was half as smart as he thought he was he would be twice as smart as he actually was. You did not give your greatest foe incredible powers at the expense of his soul, that was what you did for your friends, who, granted, weren't likely to stay your friends long.

Either way, it had never crossed Hojo's mind that if he so desired all Vincent had to do was take a couple handfuls of soil, dump them in his boots and he could go where he liked taking his consecrated soil with him. Of course in the back of his mind, Vincent wondered why he had wanted to go here.

Vampires lived off memories, but typically they were memories that belonged to other people, and Vincent understood that all too clearly looking back at what kind of memories filled this place. Who would have guessed that it could have turned out this way? Whoever it had been who had said "no moment is sadder is when a father buries his son" had doubtlessly been right. Except that even that simple dignity was beyond Vincent's reach.

So many things were beyond Vincent's reach. Only a few remained, but he couldn't allow to himself to think about how few, he was a Turk, the mission came first. Every single time he had thought differently he had ended up regretting it. Bury Hojo, bury Shinra, bury Jenova. He could do that, he was a Turk, dealing death was all he had ever been good at. So why had he chosen to come back here?

"To tell you that I screwed up again apparently. That Vincent Valentine got two chances and pissed them both down the drain. I don't expect you to give me a third, I bet you wished you never knew me, because if it hadn't been for me, you'd still be alive."

Vincent kept silent for a moment, and then suddenly his ennui snapped like a muscle that been used one time too many. "Dam it! I refuse to fool myself into lying to you here. If I had never stepped off of that airship into Nibelhiem, then you'd still be just as dead today! And not by accident, or old age, or anything else, you'd be dead because you would have died the exact same way! No one could have survived what you went through if they hadn't been a SOLDIER, and without Sephiroth's cells to function as a buffer between human and Jenova life forms, there would be no SOLDIERS."

If that wasn't a catch 22 then Vincent had never heard one. And quite frankly he could remember the looks on people's faces when he had told them "if you move I'll shoot you" and then shot them while they were being a good target and standing still. "The only difference would be that would have been Hojo's child instead of mine. Hojo's child with what Sephiroth has? With half of what Sephiroth has?

I'd like to think that you understand that I'm tired. I'm tired of Hojo holding my left arm over my head and asking me why I'm hitting myself when he slaps me with it! This isn't my fault, this isn't my sin! This is Gaste's fault for not taking Sephiroth with him when he left Shinra, for not doing more for Sephiroth. This is Hojo's fault for caring more about science than he does other people! This is your fault for believing him when he told you that you would survive.

What destiny wanted of me, it had no right to expect! I could love you, but empathy? Do you know what been done to me, what I did to myself to stop myself from ever being able to empathize with those people in the crosshairs. I refuse to be held responsible for the crimes of others, I'm just a gun. I can't pull my trigger, and I can't aim myself, and that's why, right now, I'd give anything to feel your hands around me.

Do you know how many nights I lay awake wanting you to take me in your hands, take me and point me at your husband? I wanted to do it, and I wasn't able to, you weren't able to, Gaste wasn't able to, none of us were. So here we are living, existing in this imperfect world, a mile long chain of humanity, every single one of us unable to see the world, our only sense of security the blind man who's ahead of us.

So I ask you now, please tell me, please give me a sign, give me a target, prove to me that I'm right. Give me some proof that this isn't just a throw of the dice. I want to think that even now, because those days when I woke up with you next to me, I was the happiest gun in the world. Just to touch you, see you, smell you, even with human senses that was my greatest bliss."

Vincent slowly stopped looking up at the ceiling and looked around, there was his sign. He walked over to it, and picked it up, he read the inscription and smiled, it was a fitting name. She had told him she would finish it before she gave birth to her son, but she had been too sick to take Vincent out to this place where she said she had put it. She told him that before she died, but in the throes of the delirium that seized her in her last days, would could have known if what she spoke was truth or just madness?

If only he could have used it. She had designed it for him when he had been an entire man instead of a ramshackle collection of parts. She had designed it for him when he had favored his left hand because he had a left hand to favor. Years of practice couldn't quite make a man ambidextrous, Vincent had come close, but when he had one, he had always preferred his left hand.

He tried holding it in his claw, but that felt no more correct than holding it in his right hand did. Still he took the rifle and the strap, and set it up so that he wore it over his shoulder the same way his son had worn Masamune. He laughed slightly at the prospect of only now finally taking a gun that had been made for him three decades ago, help from beyond the grave indeed. Beyond the grave...

Hojo had said he had done something to Her body, but what? Doubtless he had left her in the Nibelhiem mansion, but where? The other dead bodies in the coffins were male, Vincent could tell by the bone structure, which meant that Lucresia had to be somewhere. Vincent did some quick calculation and then took of at a very fast run, he had to find out one way or another.

----

Vincent cursed. He had combed this mansion from top to bottom, and not found any sign of a female skeleton. He had looked through the secret passage thoroughly for that was where most likely Hojo would have hid her body, but when he looked at his reflection in a full length mirror, all he saw was desperation. Wait a moment, his reflection?

Vincent had a reflection, but it only showed up in things that weren't connected to nature, like a well shined gun. It didn't show up in simple things like mirrors or ponds of water. So why was it showing up in this mirror? Because this mirror wasn't a simple mirror. What if...? A secret passage in a secret passage? Doubtless it made sense to someone like Hojo.

Slowly a smile crept onto Vincent's face as he brought back his claw. "It begins now, the music of the night!" Vincent swung that claw with all of the considerable strength in his recently refreshed body. The mirror shattered into tiny fragments, and behind it was a hallway. It had been a mirror just like the kind used in interrogation cells, you looked through it from one direction and you saw your reflection, from the other you saw through it like a window.

When Vincent walked back out through that mirror frame, 7 years of bad luck was the last thing on his mind, he was even singing. " I'm dressed all in blue, and I'm remembering you, and the dress you wore when you broke my heart. Am I gonna be lonely for the rest of my life? I'm gonna be lonely for the rest of my life, unless you come around. So come around!" He would make sure that he would not be alone to weep crimson tears in memory of Sephiroth.

End Chapter

OWAN: Sorry that took so long. TO those of you that are still with me, I'm glad to report that school's out, so I'll be able to update much more often.


	27. Chapter 27

FN: I couldn't find any other way to define this so here it is, a look inside  
Sephiroth's mind, or several of them, its just the things he deals with in the  
Lifestream/his own head. Oh by the way I recently upgraded from HighschoolStudent 4.0 to PreColledgeStudent 1.0, check out the new bitchin' update rate!

Chapter 27: I'm walking down the line, that divides me somewhere in my mind.

My moment of Un-Truth: The best part of "believe" is the "lie".

Sephiroth was tired of fighting himself. Literarily. He flipped backwards barely managing to avoid an arching blow from Masamune. He was tired, and panting, that shouldn't have been possible, but then he had been fighting for hours, and so, well... he was panting, too. There was a subtle difference between him and the Sephiroth trying to kill him. His doppelganger had bangs that defied gravity, arcing up before falling along the sides of his face.

Other than that, exact same face, same Masamune, and most unfortunate of all, exact same skill. Sephiroth faced himself and scowled. "I can't believe what you're doing." The other Sephiroth just scowled back at him. "What do you know? You betrayed your mother!" Sephiroth barley managed to dodge a sword thrust from his doppelganger. "Like blood matters!"

The two Masamunes slammed against each other; they were getting too tired for fancy maneuvers. Now they were just throwing all the strength they had left at each other. "Next thing you're gong to be telling me that you're doing this for your father!" Lines either from anger or tiredness crisscrossed his double's face. "I have no father!" Sephiroth stayed calm though his arms felt like they might give out any moment. "His name is Simon Hojo. And he never cared any more for us than your 'mother' did! Family is a crutch, and if you'll never beat me if you're lame!" 

Unfortunately, the fact of the matter was that unless Sephiroth was much mistaken, he still might lose this fight. "Get out of my sight! What do you think you're fighting for?" If Sephiroth had to keep this up for another second his arms would give up. Fine, he knew what he had to do. "Myself! The same thing you are!"

Sephiroth lashed out with a strong kick from his combat boots to that one area in which even he was vulnerable. His fake dropped his copy of Masamune, and Sephiroth was finally able to drop the sword he no longer had the strength to swing. Of course he also knew that even after a blow like that, he would be back on his feet fairly soon. So Sephiroth didn't waste time, he leapt at himself, dragging both of them to the ground, as much as any ground existed in the black void that they fought in.

"I don't care who you think you are. I'm smarter than you!" Sadly as soon as the words were out of his mouth, the Jenova worshiping Sephiroth slugged him in the mouth, hard. Sephiroth could feel blood in his mouth, that and at least one tooth. Maybe those would grow back as quickly as broken bones did. Maybe Sephiroth was like a shark, with one row of teeth after another waiting for him if he needed them. But what did that matter?

He tossed and turned, wrestling with himself for a death grip, but neither one of him was able to gain a clear advantage, at least until Sephiroth finished waiting. When his own eyes were completely open looking at him with hatred, he opened his mouth and spat. The blood that had been collecting in his mouth splashed into those hate filled eyes.

For a moment they closed, and Sephiroth knew it was now or never. Both of his hands wrapped tight around his own neck. "Don't think of this as me killing you, think of it as assisted suicide!" Sephiroth watched his own limbs flail helplessly as he wrenched his own neck.

He watched those hateful eyes close again, and he didn't loosen his grip till he was sure they would never open. He knew he could hold his breath for a very, very long time, so he made sure to do a good job. He kept choking himself even after he was sure that he was dead. "You poor deluded fool... look what you went and made me do..."

------------------------

My White Whale: You thought you were there to guide me, you were only in my way. You're wrong if you think that ill be just like you

"I can give you everything you want." Sephiroth kept his back to Jenova since he couldn't walk away. "You can give me nothing that I can't get on my own." Jenova was not dissuaded. "I can give you power." Sephiroth chuckled. "I think I have all the power I want." "I can give you riches." "You obviously haven't seen how big my bank account is." "I can give you friends." "I had Zack until you killed him." "I can give you more friends, friends who will never die."

"Thanks, but I'd rather keep pets now." "I can give you family." "I don't want a family. Face it, you don't know even know what it is I want." "Then tell me and I will give it to you." "Really?" "Yes my son." "Then give me a childhood. One without bars or cages or tears. Tears cried because I couldn't take one more injection, or one more blood test. Tears I cried because I had to watch those failed clones of me die off one at a time. A childhood where people coughed to clear their throats and not practically cough up their own lungs.

A childhood with sunrises and sunsets instead of electric lights? A childhood with real food instead of being fed various mixes of steroids and nutrients through IV lines? A childhood with nothing to do instead of countless hours of exercise? Can you give me that Jenova? Not just memories, but an actual childhood? Can you?" "..." "That's what I thought."

------------------------

My mentor: Son, what have you done?

"You've killed so many people." Sephiroth looked at Dr. Gaste and decided to sit down on nothing so that he could look up to the one man he respected. "Yes. But I don't  
regret it. They were killed in self defense." Dr. Gaste glared at Sephiroth but with sadness rather than anger. "Sephiroth, true self defense involves not giving people a reason to kill you."

Sephiroth couldn't bring himself to even glance at Aeris' father. "I was never strong enough, Doctor. I needed purpose, I needed discipline to fight Jenova, and the only place I felt I could get them was in the army." Sephiroth didn't have to see Gaste's eyes to know he was crying. "So you traded your life for how many others?" Sephiroth some how found the strength to look at Gaste. "I traded the life of the planet for how many lives, Gaste? If I wasn't here to fight Jenova, who would be?" Gaste took off his glasses and took a moment to dry the tears from them.

"The others, Sephiroth. The others can do fine without you." Sephiroth felt his own eyes starting to feel wet but he simply refused to cry. "The others can do fine without me. But tell me this: could the others have gotten together without me? James has no true sense of right and wrong, he's a child, Mirri is just along because I convinced her, your daughter because I found her, Alex because I freed him, Niro because he sought me out, Vincent, well, you know how he is, and Melkore doesn't have an altruistic bone in his body.

They got together because I brought them together. I needed to do that Gaste, and I don't know anyone else who could have done it. I don't regret what I did. I've done something horrible I've done several horrible things. But I can't regret them now. We can't be afraid of our power, me any more than your daughter. We can't be afraid of it while we fight. I know it's hard for her, because every day I wake up and want to scream. I'm right on the edge of how much power the human body can posses before it rips itself apart."

At that point Sephiroth finally did laugh. "A human body, is that even the right way to describe me? Maybe I'm something like James, something that vaguely resembles a human, but simply isn't. Hell, am I even as human as James? Maybe I'm just a weapon, passing from hand to hand. I was designed to be Shinra's weapon, but then Hojo stole me for Jenova. Then you passed me into the hands of the Planet, and then back to Shinra, almost to Jenova, and now to the Planet again.

A perfect circle with no loose ends and no escape. I'm just a weapon, yes, that's exactly what I am, Doctor, a weapon. Angel or demon, they're both weapons, only the hand that wields them is different. I've never been a person, I'll never be a person, no family, I'm just Sephiroth Masamune, Masamune Sephiroth, user and weapon fused together."

Now Sephiroth actually was crying, so much for his vaunted emotional control. "Catch 22 Sephiroth." Sephiroth looked back at Gaste. "What?" Gaste looked like he no more wanted to go down whatever road the two of them had been set on than Sephiroth did. "Catch 22. Any mind capable of grasping the concept of its own insanity is by nature sane. Are you anything but a weapon? I'd stake my life that you are a person, actual and whole. And I'm not only willing to bet my life on it, but my daughter's as well. She couldn't be in better hands." Somehow Sephiroth doubted that considering that he was here, and Aeris was somewhere out there.

Still, all the same, Gaste walked over and ran a hand as far down Sephiroth's hair as far he could. "You're more than a person, you're a man Sephiroth. That means that I can't tell you if you've been right or wrong. All I can tell you is what I see. Just promise me you'll never forget the faces of those you kill." Sephiroth did and he didn't have to ask why.

------------------------

My Female Trouble: This guilt feels so familiar.

"Aeris, you don't have to do this." "Sephiroth, I do. Who is left to speak for the Cetra?" "Let the Cetra speak for themselves. I didn't let the spirits of the dead drag me down with them, you don't have to either." "I'm doing this for all the right reasons." "Does it matter for what reasons you do something like this?" "I have to think it does." "I know it doesn't." "Then what are you going to do?" "I'll keep going." "If you do this Aeris, I'll have to stop you."

"If you try, I'll have to stop you Sephiroth." "Aeris, you know more than anyone that nothing can stop me." Aeris' voice broke into a beautiful rhythmic chant. It was interrupted once by the sound of Masamune sliding free from its sheath. It was ended by the sound of Masamune slicing through skin so smoothly that Sephiroth could only hope it didn't even cause pain.

Then Sephiroth dropped Masamune, he no longer needed it. "Aeris forgive me. Forgive me Aeris, forgive me and tell me that you'd do the same in my shoes." Aeris' severed head couldn't respond, so the only sound to fill the City of the Ancients was a sound akin to shattering glass as Sephiroth crushed the Black Materia he had taken from Aeris' hand till all that was left was dust.

------------------------

My First Kill: If there was another way to go, I missed it 20 long years ago. My life was a war that could never be won, they gave me a number and murdered Valjean.

FN: It should be pointed out that the next two segments, unlike the rest of this chapter, are not mental fantasies of Sephiroth's, they're his memories, so the following events actually took place.

Sephiroth waited. He had been waiting for almost a month now. It wasn't a problem, really. He could wait forever. No that was too much, he could wait 'til the perfect moment, he wouldn't wait a moment beyond that. They knew that he was getting stronger, they just didn't realize how much stronger. 

They had to keep giving him different types of tranquillizers because his body was getting used to them and learning to neutralize them as soon as they were administered. He had been playing them for two months now. They thought it took 24 hours for his body to get used to the drugs. It took 12. They wouldn't be changing the dosage for another five hours now. Sephiroth had already spent a very long 7 hours in this mako filled tank, doing nothing but trying to look like he was more out of things than a man who had been looking for a cigarette and ended up with a joint, instead. It was the most goddamn boring s that the Planet could ever possibly have conceived.

And he had borne it for a over a month. 12 hours like this for day after day. It was amazing what you could learn to live with. The sound of feet on the metal floor made Sephiroth's entire body tingle with pleasure. He knew the schedules, knew them by heart, he had nothing to do but memorize them. There was no one who was supposed to come to him at this time. How wonderful, that must have meant that Hojo was back; Sephiroth couldn't wait to show him everything he had learned. 

He didn't open his eyes, he just let his ears tell him everything he needed. There was no way that Sephiroth wouldn't be able to recognize Hojo's voice even in this mako tank. "You see, this is my greatest triumph, my son Sephiroth!" It was Hojo's voice, that meant it was time to act. Sephiroth couldn't afford to mess this up, he'd have only one chance. But one chance was all Sephiroth needed, one chance, in so many miserable years of life, he wouldn't let it go down the drain.

"How could you do this to your son?" Hojo laughed at that, of course he did. "How? How? You need to ask how, look! I've done it!" "Why?" "Why? That is as foolish a question as 'how' my dear woman! I did it because this is what science is for! To test, to examine, to pull apart and put back together, to see what exactly humanity is capable of. Sephiroth will stretch the limits of human achievement; become the definition of human perfection! Not just his body, but his mind as well is more capable than anything that has ever come before. All of this is just to see what we are capable of, why must we know that? Because we can! After all, when you have the power to do something, it's very hard not to try!"

Sephiroth opened his eyes. Hojo, a few guards, a woman, and her child, Sephiroth could deal with that just fine. He put his hands against the tank and thought hard. Mako has a much higher heat of vaporization than water. But it also takes a lot higher temperature to melt glass than it does to turn water into steam. Sephiroth wasn't sure exactly what the temperature was, he didn't care.

He could make fire hot enough. Sephiroth could make stone burn (he was pretty sure that was technically impossible: it should have melted first, but he could make it ignite). The mako bubbled and fizzled, as Sephiroth's hands did their job. The tank was made of bulletproof glass, so he couldn't just punch through it. However, it took more than that to hold him. Hojo wanted to see what his son was capable of? He would.

The glass began to bubble and crack, then finally shattered, and the mako that hadn't evaporated started to drain from the tank. He went with it, he took only a moment, to wipe mako from his eyes, and then he was up on his feet. "SHOOT HIM!" Hojo was too slow. The guards were too slow. Even the bullets were too slow. Sephiroth was faster than all of them.

The closest guard was his target, and Sephiroth killed him. He did it splendidly. A kick to the guard's chest to make him go down on his knees, and then his neck was low enough for Sephiroth to reach. It was his first kill, and it was so easy. It was just like that time, had it been only two years ago? Dr. Gaste had leaned over him, and smiled at Sephiroth's sweat furrowed brow. "Sephiroth, you'll never get the bottle open like that however strong you are. You need to do it like this." Lift and twist he had said. Lift and twist, and the man's neck snapped in Sephiroth's small hands.

But he didn't have time for more reminiscing; he grabbed the guard's 9MM pistol from his unresisting hand. "You want me to be thankful to you Hojo, to like you, for what you've done to me? How very foolish you are, and how very foolish I am, because I do. Thank you father. Thank you for this immortal body, thank you for this defective life. This hatred that is all I know is quite insufficient for expressing the gratitude I feel for each and every one of you. Now give me freedom so that I can know what it means to live!" Sephiroth turned around, the guard he had just killed had been the slowest and had only had time to get his gun ready, he had not fired a single shot. Shinra standard 9MM pistol, seven rounds. There were seven guards, Sephiroth had their locations relative to him burned into his mind's eye.

He pulled the trigger, he moved and pulled it again, again and again and again. Then he turned around, and inspected his handiwork. Shinra body armor didn't stop a headshot from penetrating your skull, and that was just what Sephiroth had done. Seven other guards, seven head shots, and Sephiroth had been looking the other way. Moving like a bolt of silver lightning, Sephiroth was suddenly in front of Hojo.

"Are you impressed? Because unlike Gaste I'm not just running, I'm going to shoot my way out of here, and take these two with me, just to piss you off." Then a swift open palm (granted all of his fingers pointed towards Hojo as he delivered it) strike in the right place. "That didn't break your spine, just shifted it. Your going to walk crooked for the rest of your crooked life, which will last until you run into me again. Now you can sleep." Some people needed subliminal training, others needed magic, Sephiroth preferred a good simple whack to the head from an empty gun.

Hojo crumpled and Sephiroth dropped the pistol. Then once again he raced around the room as fast as he could, grabbing the two guards' automatic rifles. They were almost too large for him, almost, but he held onto them with sheer determination. Then he turned to the mother and daughter. "Follow me as best as you can. But I make no promises about getting you out of this alive."

The mother tugged her child's arm forcing her to move her feet. Sephiroth quickly searched Hojo and found what he needed, his key card. Then, he raced to the elevator that  
would go down to the first floor and out of this building. He knew plenty about Midgar  
and Shinra HQ from what Gaste had told him, and what he had gleaned from unsuspecting  
guards. Sephiroth said nothing during the elevator down all 60 plus floors to either of them. Conversation was unimportant, and Sephiroth needed to be perfectly prepared. When the doors did open, he was.

The secretary was first. Sephiroth riddled the length of the desk and area around it with bullets. The secretary wouldn't have any guns, it wasn't self defense, but any court that wasn't run by Shinra would have forgiven him after hearing his side of the story. Then he started shooting the guards on the first floor. None of them had a chance. The ones on the second floor walkways had cover though, and they fired downwards as the three raced towards the door out. 

Sephiroth didn't bother to try and dodge. There was a slight stinging sensation, he couldn't help but notice from the brief glimpses he caught of the ammunition coming his way that they were shooting him with silver bullets, how pathetic. If they had been using mako tipped ones they might have been able to stop him, but silver? Someone must have been reading too many fairytales to think that silver would work against him. Sadly, you didn't need special bullets to kill an ordinary woman or her child. Sephiroth heard the impact, heard her fall to the floor. He swore mentally.

That made things much more complicated, he could still get out just fine, but he would get these two out, if he could. He tossed the empty gun in his right hand towards the secretary's desk and it landed exactly where he wanted it to. It triggered the alarm that had been the reason for shooting the secretary. The bulletproof shutter started to lower in front of the door out. Started to was the key word. Sephiroth turned around, emptied several rounds at the guards on the upper floors, and then grabbed the woman with his empty right hand. 

She weighed next to nothing, and halfway pulling half way carrying, he got her out just as the bulletproof shutters closed. It would take Shinra a while to open those shutters and that while was all he needed. "The train isn't far, we're almost out." The woman began to cough and splutter without words coming out and the child stayed silent, either completely caught up in the moment, or too young to talk, Sephiroth didn't know. Or care, really.

One way or another, the group managed to get make their way to the train, and Sephiroth showed his amazing understanding of how to win arguments with normal people. "Get us to Sector Seven now, or I'll kill you." This statement mixed with having a gun in your hands proved a potent combination. The conductor didn't spare the throttle, which proved that Sephiroth was right.

Finally sure that he had succeeded, Sephiroth turned his attention to his two hitchhikers. The woman still looked like her entire body was rocking in pain, and the girl looked on in fear. Sephiroth did a quick examination of the wound pattern, and knew instantly that anything he could do for her would have been pointless. So he turned his attention to the girl. "I'm Sephiroth, you are?"

The girl wrung her so small hands in fear but finally managed to speak. "Aeris." Sephiroth nodded. "All right Aeris, don't worry. The human mind has great ability to heal its own wounds. The amygdala is responsible for limiting the senses so as to protect the brain over all from psychological defects. Unlike me, you have a perfectly good brain."

Sephiroth didn't feel like saying that his father had apparently decided that a selective lobotomy would A: give him greater combat abilities and B; make his life more of a living hell. "I promise you Aeris. Your mother is going to die, I'm going to drop you into the middle of Lower Midgar which is almost as bad as what I just got out of, without anyone to look after you, because I have other places I need to be.

I swear to you however that in a moment, you won't remember any of this, or anything leading up to it either. But the best part is, I won't at all be harming you. You'll get a clean slate of memories personality wise, but you'll still know how to do everything like walk and talk. Believe me, I would give anything for some one to do to me what I'm about to do to you. Sadly the place I'm about to stuff all these unfortunate memories to doesn't exist in my mind anymore.

Believe me, the name Sephiroth will never even ring a bell, sweet dreams." Sephiroth executed the move perfectly. It disturbed him to know that he could do it. Maybe he should have done it to Hojo. No, then whoever the "new" Hojo was, Sephiroth wouldn't have been able to hold everything he had done against him. Of course it also might not have worked as cleanly against someone who had 35 years of memory instead of three.

Then Sephiroth turned his attention to the woman. "I promise you that it won't hurt anymore." Then Sephiroth fired. And fired, and fired. He emptied all of the ten remaining shots he had at point blank range. It had to be a better place she was going to. Any place had to be better than here in Midgar choking as your blood slowly seeped into your  
own lungs. Sephiroth breathed a silent prayer to how effectively the human brain   
normally was at disengaging parts of itself in order to maintain functionality overall. Now if only he had a normal brain.

------------------------

My Drive-By: You can't kill me I'm immortal

Zack was drunk. That was why Sephiroth was driving. It hadn't done much for his mood to go out and watch Zack go through the process of getting drunk on a large quantity of liquor and hitting on every girl in the bar until he finally collapsed. So Sephiroth had carried him out to the car and strapped him in. Then Sephiroth started to drive back to Shinra HQ.

The other guy wasn't as drunk as Zack. That made him more dangerous, because he was sober enough to operate heavy machinery. Sephiroth did everything he could, but the car wasn't as fast as he was, not by far. He would have walked back to Shinra HQ with Zack slung over his shoulder, but it was Zack's car, and leaving a car unattended overnight in Sector Seven was like tossing a rock into the ocean, you could be sure you would never see it again.

So try as he might, the extreme speed with which he turned the wheel or hit the brake didn't matter. The guy swerved over the line right in front of Sephiroth. The two slammed into each other hard and fast. At the last second Sephiroth realized that he had been so busy making sure Zack was safely strapped in that he didn't remember to buckle himself in as well.

Those thoughts flashed through his mind on the way to the windshield. Then he hit it head first, there was a brief tinge of pain as the entire windshield shattered; several parts of it sticking into him. Then he went over the other guy's cars hit the ground hard, and finally rolled to a stop. Then he laughed.

He laid there in the middle of that horrible accident and laughed. Because if this was all that karma could come up with, it would have to try a lot harder. He stood back up, and  
brushed himself off in a shower of glass. There were still a few shards left in him  
however. He could feel them stinging him. He didn't bother trying to pick them out. The  
glass wasn't as determined as Sephiroth's skin was. It realized that it needed to seal itself  
up so it kept replicating till finally it pushed the glass out and then went ahead with its work.

Still feeling light headed, he walked around the car that had slammed into his. On foot he was quite sure he could avoid any attempt to run him down. Then he carefully inspected the status of the other driver, and laughed again. That poor idiot hadn't been wearing his seatbelt either.

But he wasn't Sephiroth. He wasn't alive. He was a mess on the ground that might have once been human. Sephiroth sat down next to him, and laughed at the absurdity of it. Midgar was a city that never slept. Seeing the accident, its people instantly realized that something was wrong, and got out of the lane, though not a single person stopped to see what had happened. It was terribly funny.

This man had doubtlessly thought he was invincible, and now Sephiroth looked at what was left of him, idly wondering how long till the scavengers (which were the one part of Midgar that you could always count on) showed up and began to eat his body. A man had gone and killed himself, and by all rights Sephiroth should have been dead.

No, not by all rights. Sephiroth had been shot and stabbed, why should this have killed him? It was the nature of insanity to think that if you did the same thing over and over again you would get a different result. Over and over again Sephiroth had been hammered, and time after time he got back up, dusted himself off, and then laughed.

Laughed in the face of his own "mortality", and why not? Your sense of mortality was supposed to keep you safe. It was supposed to keep you from doing something like what this man had just done. Yet, Sephiroth had done everything right that night, and here he was. It had not been his sense of mortality that had saved him, but the mako and Jenova in his veins.

It hadn't saved him by stopping this from happening, it had saved him by doing just that. It had healed his wounds almost as fast as they had opened. He had felt one of his shoulders become dislocated when he had landed. In response to that sensation he had simply made a slight adjustment of how he held himself and it had popped back into place.

He had felt his kneecap break, and he had felt the bones knit as quickly as an amoeba splitting from one being into two. He had gone headfirst through a windshield and his mind had told him exactly "ouch" in the process then gotten to work. Most people didn't have bodies like that. Most people didn't get second, third, fourth, fifth, numbers beyond reckoning, chances. Most people ended up dead. And what, exactly was he doing with it? Well, who really cared?

FN: Sephiroth says don't drink and drive. If you're going to drink, be like Reno and make sure to hang around with somebody who doesn't, why else do you think he tolerates Elena?

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(FN: We're back in the land of stuff that's all in Sephiroth's mind, this should make the change fairly obvious)

My Nickname: For everything I long to do, no matter when or where or who, has one thing in common, too, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a sin. It's a sin!

The wall exploded inward with absolutely no warning. Pride was through it first, his long silver hair trailing behind him. Dr. Simon Hojo's face turned a very unhealthy shade of white at the sight of him. "What are you doing here?" Pride made one simple motion and spoke one single sentence. "Lust, show the doctor our gratitude for these second lives he has given us."

Lust thrust her hand forward, palm open and suddenly her fingernails transformed into claws that grew in length until they pinned Hojo to the floor one on either side of his labcoat. "Greed, make sure that Sloth is okay. I want all seven of us to get out of here. Wrath, make sure that we're not disturbed."

Wrath saluted, his small body practically humming with energy as he raced over to the elevator. He planted his hands on the wall next to it and inside a few seconds what once had been an elevator door had become a solid wall of metal. "That should slow them down some." Greed delivered a hammer blow to the glass tank shattering it into pieces. "Hey Sloth, how _you_ doing?" Sloth got up slowly running her hands through her brown hair. "Better now."

Gluttony having been given no orders was slowly edging towards Hojo and licking his lips. "Come on Pride, let me eat him. I want him to suffer for what he did to her! How dare he leave the woman I loved to feed the worms?" Pride considered the long term reasons why he shouldn't give into that request, there weren't many. "Maybe later Gluttony. Right now, the good doctor is going to show us the fruits of his labor. After all, he's had countless prisoners of war and criminals to work with, so I'm quite sure that he'll have what we want ready for us."

Hojo squirmed but had no success at freeing himself form his labcoat and thus the impediment it was currently inflicting on him. "Is that all you care about Pride?" Pride stroked his chin with a delicate finger thinking long and hard. "Well there are a multitude of other things, but no matter how I try they always seem to come back to that stone. You know how it's the key to making us human again.

Not that I'm complaining, per se, this entire feeling no pain and near immortality is hardly a 'curse' but something about seeing the world five seconds before everyone else with one eye tends to give me a migraine. Not to mention that every time I look in a mirror, I can't help but be reminded how foolish this eye patch looks. Oh and Envy, feel free to indulge in some identity theft any time now, we would hardly want people to think something is going wrong in here. Well, just tell them that some lab experiment escaped that should buy us plenty of time."

Envy nodded, and in a few moments there was another Simon Hojo in the room and heading out of it. "I'll make this quick; there are some shapes even I find distasteful." Pride pulled off the black eye patch he wore revealing the "eye" underneath. It had no pupil, but instead an odd design in red, it was a serpent devouring its own tail, with six triangles inside of it, three large, three small.

"So lets talk about you and me, Hojo. You shoved a shard of the devil's own heart into mine, and now I want the whole thing." Suddenly in a burst of panic Hojo finally managed to tear himself free from his labcoat and make a break for it. He got all of five feet before a blast of highly pressurized water slammed into him, sending him sprawling.

"Nice shot, Sloth, I was afraid that I would have to chase him down." Sloth smiled widely at Pride's compliment. "Well on one hand I could see he was about to do it from the look in your eye, on the other I was just riding the wave." Pride's sword came out of its sheath and came back down in Hojo's shoulder. "Now then Doctor, you gave something very important to us, and we're not going to be satisfied till we get the rest of it. So for the last time before I let Gluttony turn you into a one course meal, where is the Philosopher's Stone?"

------------------------

My Transition: Angels, they fell first, but I'm still here

Sephiroth collapsed face first into the small puddle of water. Two hydrogens bonded to an oxygen in the liquid phase of matter had never seemed so appealing. The water tried to drown him but it had underestimated its opponent. As hard as it tried Sephiroth tried harder to drink every single drop of water in that puddle which he succeeded at in the end, though it felt like he swallowed some sand as well.

Not that he cared. He wasn't sure how long he had been in this place, or where it was. But he was sure of one thing, you couldn't walk around this place without taking in sand even as you breathed. He wasn't even sure why he kept trying, there was nothing he could hope to achieve. But apparently he just wasn't ready to die.

That was why when there wasn't any more water left in the small hole, he started to dig at to see if there was any more within reach. There was more liquid but it wasn't water. A fountain of Lifestream emerged a moment after Sephiroth's fingers felt dampness beneath them and he barely got out of the deeper hole he had dug fast enough. Now he felt like he was ready to finally give up the ghost and become one.

/This is my blood poured out for you.\ Sephiroth looked into the Lifestream and saw only his own reflection. So this was what real insanity actually felt like, somehow he had expected it to be more flamboyant. He rested his head in the sand and looked up into a sky completely devoid of clouds that might offer any protection from the glaring sun or give promise of rain.

"If I had a chocobo right now I'd have named it to have given me something to call him when I talked to him to pass the boredom. Of course by now I'd also have eaten him to fight off starvation." /You are full of determination.\ Sephiroth decided that he might as well talk to the voices in his head, there wasn't that much left to lose. Besides it wasn't like he would be alone that much longer anyways. All around him lay bones parched white by the sun, and so Sephiroth expected to finally accomplish in death what he never had in life, fitting in.

"Yes I am. It's about the only things I have left because it's something that they couldn't take from me however hard they tried." /With enough determination, anything is possible, even making a place like this into a paradise.\ "Go find someone else. All I do is kill." /Anything capable of performing an action can perform the opposite action.\ Sephiroth unsheathed Masamune.

He wasn't sure what he was still doing with it. It was weight that he didn't need since he hadn't encountered anything he couldn't have killed with his bare hands out here. In fact he hadn't encountered any animals out here. Not to mention in his current condition the fact that it was weight he didn't need had started to matter. "I don't know what universe you live in but, in mine, you can't knit bones with a sword."

The voice was undeterred. /The tool's purpose is determined by its design, the hand selects the tool, the mind controls the hands. All that you need to do is realize what you are capable of.\ Sephiroth already knew what he was capable of. He was capable of turning the entire world into a desert like this one if he wasn't careful. Summoning up what little extra strength the water had given him he crawled off and the returned with a skull.

It had been easy to select because it had been different in just the right way from all the others. "Alas, poor Firecat. I knew him, Voice, a fellow of most infinite and excellent jest." This finally managed to successfully befuddle the voice. /You laugh at the concept of death?\ Sephiroth tossed the skull away. "Not really. I never learned how to laugh, and I got tired of crying a long time ago."

/Then ponder this. The river of life is death itself to most who touch it, yet the body of one whose only desire is destruction has in it capacity to greatly increase life.\ Sephiroth did, he might have found it amusing if he hadn't been so tired. "What's your point? I can hardly be expected to help this place when I can't help myself." /Then learn to help yourself.\

Sephiroth glared at the pool of green. "I've tried. I've helped myself to every opportunity that came my way." /Then perhaps you would be interested in mine. Would you be surprised if I said I wished you for an avatar?\ Sephiroth wasn't. It was a job that it seemed everyone wanted to have him for.

"That's how you work isn't it? You and Jenova are both puppet masters, but while she demands to be the ones holding the strings, you simply arrange it so that we pull our own strings to your liking. Do you need to ask me if I want to stop Shinra? Do you need to ask me if I want to destroy Jenova?" /Yes, I will admit that I have a preference for natural selection.\

As Sephiroth considered it all very slowly his almost-fried brain managed to make all of the pieces involved line up perfectly and he started to laugh. It was a incredibly stupid thing to do and he knew it, not only because of the absurdity but the eventual tears that his great laughter eventually brought with it were a waste of what little salt and water his body had left.

"You want me, back out there, so that I can serve as an antibody to Jenova! To do what your Cetra couldn't, because you only bring death naturally and Jenova's lifespan is probably something close to infinite. But you know that I can look someone in the eyes and kill them, however old or young, however strong or weak, if I want their death. That's why you need me, I'm a benign form of Jenova, which by natural processes makes me her vaccine." /On a strictly micrological level, correct.\

Sephiroth didn't really care. Why should he care whose side he ended up on as long as they shared his desires. Except that no one, not even Aeris gave things away for free. "What do you want from me then? Besides Jenova's head on a platter and her body in an incinerator?" /To fully destroy Jenova you must be able to heal yourself and others.\ "Not a chance. We do what we know, and what I know is killing. Even Dr. Gaste didn't try to teach me differently, he just taught me how to be more civically minded with my death dealing." /What if I was to teach you?\ "How do you intend to do that?"

/If you trust me, drink, and you will know what to do.\ Sephiroth didn't see much choice in the matter any more. Considering his current statement the fact that what he was about to do might leave him out of touch with reality was probably a blessing. He ran a hand through the Lifestream (grateful he was still wearing gloves) and cupped it to his mouth. At first there was an immense sensation of all the blood in his body rushing to his head. This surprised Sephiroth since he didn't think there was enough liquid left in his blood for it to rush anywhere.

After that came a sensation that his entire body was one fire, but this was preferable to the previous sensation that his entire body was about to become dehydrated, literarily. He drank and drank, and unlike the water there didn't seem to be any lack of Lifestream. When he was finally finished true to the planet's word he knew what to do. He got up and walked over to James' skull, picking it up and returning to where it had previously been.

"Is your curiosity sated?" He turned to another skeleton laying near James', apparently female. "SOLDIER you best get yourself together on the double!" He walked from one pile of bones to another lingering long enough to offer some statement. To one that had no left arm. "I'm not finished yet and that better mean you aren't either!" To one that had a stringless guitar (the strings were probably being used to line some buzzards nest) laying across it. "We had a contract, and I don't remember any clause about it being broken by death." To one that was almost human but had a different number of ribs and other structural changes. "It's all your choice, but I think I know what you'll do." To one that was obviously lupine in nature. "If you can die for the planet's will, you better be able to live for it!"

Finally he stopped by the last skeleton, another female. He got down on his knees before it and kissed the skull where the lips would have been had it not be without skin. "GAIA, GIVE MY LOVER LIFE!" That kicked it off. He jumped back as he heard the sound and was thankful for it. Seven towering pillars of Lifestream erupted like geysers from the ground right beneath the skeletons. Nothing, not even this desolate place, could resist the command of pure life.

Where bits of Lifestream splashed on the ground grass or plants grew. Where lots of it landed trees grew. Sephiroth marveled as he watched the process of genesis unfold before him in record time. Invertebrates, insects, reptiles, birds and then mammals. Lifestream wasn't the only thing coming out of the ground now. Crystal clear water, exploded forth in great quantity creating lakes that Sephiroth doubted would be long devoid of aquatic life.

And when the 7 veins of Lifestream finally descended in their place they left seven bodies, complete with skin, flesh, sinews, and all the other trappings of that marvelous annoyance known as "life" which, needless to say included chests going up and down. /You have a great deal of life inside you, and it behooves you not to let it lie dormant.\ Sephiroth just nodded.

FN: If you can't find the religious metaphors, then you probably aren't trying hard enough.

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My two dads: Chains of love got a hold on me.

"Let's play wounds." The two white haired men sitting one to either side of Sephiroth at the bar both nodded at once. Both of them also had burning red eyes, though the one on his right, "Scar", wore his hair short and had a large white "X" carved on his face and favored a tan jacket, white shirt underneath and black pants. Meanwhile the one on his left, "Vlad", wore his white hair long and favored a loose red jacket with black pants and shirt underneath. Of course, because Sephiroth had suggested the game, he had to start.

He took off his right glove and let the proverbial gauntlet hit the table by showing off his "S" tattoo. "I got this by having a branding iron driven into my flesh and then having ink pumped into the wound. No anesthetic. Your call guys." Scar laughed, put down his drink and rolled up his right sleeve. "Kids stuff. You see this?" It was true he had a most impressive collection of tattoos running along his arm.

But it was not the tattoos he was pointing to, it was a small circle of un-tanned skin that was just above the tattoos. "This arm used to belong to my brother. How it came to be attached to me is a long story." Vlad lowered his collar revealing his circle of slightly paler skin on his neck. "I got this when I was beheaded. With an axe."

Scar evidently felt he could beat that, as he undid his brown jacket, then unbuttoned the white shirt beneath it and revealed a multitude of bullet holes in his chest that oozed spiritual essence. "I got these when I died. Standing in front of a woman who was far more bulletproof than I was." Sephiroth could beat that. He undid his black jacket and rolled up his shirt. Beneath it was a long gash in his chest running from just below his neck to his bellybutton. "I survived this one unlike you two quitters. A jackass trying to kill someone I care about drove a sword through my chest and into hers."

Both Scar and Vlad hung their heads. "Don't talk to me about love. I watched my own brother romancing a woman I was crazy about. So I had to call the woman I was having sexual fantasies about 'sister'. What do you people say to that?" For some reason reality "flinched" for Sephiroth at that moment and Sephiroth saw Scar with long black hair, but it passed. "I grew up in a science lab. The only reason I'm not more fed up is because I developed an incredibly high pain tolerance, and they realized fairly quickly that I was a one of a kind science experiment."

Vlad wasn't out of the game yet however and apparently he had saved the best for last. "When I was in my teens I was regularly sodomized by a fat man who apparently cared more for my 'company' than any of the chicks he had in his harem." Scar and Sephiroth put down their drinks and applauded while Vlad bowed. Sephiroth even took a moment to raise a pretend microphone to his lips. "Ladies and gentlemen, the undisputed champion!"

That brief game over and done with all three of them got back to their drinking. But the monster once stirred wouldn't sleep again. "Love" was in the air, or at least the topic was. "One of my wives committed suicide, after that, all my other relationships were soured by it." Sephiroth was skeptical. "How many more relationships would someone want if they had a wife commit suicide on them?" Vlad took a deep swig of his Mary's Blood before he answered. "Well I was only married once after that. Granted, it was to three woman at the same time."

Sephiroth and Scar fixed Vlad with the exact same look. Vlad just shrugged it off. "What can I say? It was good to be the king. You didn't have to get your wives on the installment plan like everyone else." Scar looked deeply into his mug. "Not long after the love of my life died I had to watch my home town get burned to the ground and its people scattered like dust in the wind, those that survived."

"I didn't even realize that the place where I happened to be was my home town until just before it was burned to the ground and everyone else there was burned or stabbed to death. Then it was rebuilt and actors were hired to play the parts of the people killed so no one would ever realize it had happened." That time Sephiroth felt like he had a distinct advantage over his companions. "Fing pope, I defended the faith, but churchy didn't give me no parade, they spat on me!"

Once again both Scar and Sephiroth slowly examined Vlad making sure that he wasn't about to have a screw pop lose and proceed to burn down the bar. Once they were sure he wasn't Sephiroth got back to the conversation. "You know what sucks the most? You can never realize that your in love because your parents, not that I really had any to tell me this kind of thing, well even if I had them I bet they wouldn't have explained it to you what love is really like. Because love isn't fat little naked babies with wings and arrows, love is a punch in the gut, it will bring you to your knees and hurt like hell, but eventually you get used to it. At least that's about as close as I can come to describing it."

Both Scar and Vlad raised their glasses and spoke in unison. "Sounds pretty right to me!" Since he was the center of attention, Sephiroth just kept talking. "Anyways, before you know it your finding every single insignificant flaw that you can with what she says, what she does and what she believes just so that you can try to justify that she's not good enough for you when our really worried about you being good enough for her." Scar raised his glass.

"Or your traveling all the way across the planet on foot, tracking down every single person belonging to the group of people who once wronged you so that you can watch as their brains burst out of their skulls." Sephiroth had more or less tried that one also, it wasn't a bad solution for how to deal with love.

"Or your deciding that since you haven't had any luck in four freaking centuries with women you should try a different approach. Next thing you know your getting shipped across the world in a luxury coffin sleeping with your arms around a barely pubescent, if consenting, boy who smokes till you love the smell of tobacco." Two bar stools scooted a few inches farther away from Vlad's. "You are a sick, sick man." Vlad just sulked.

"Listen, when your entire body is made of shadow, gender is like hairstyle, you change it to suit your needs. What's weird was that that relationship was probably the one which ended in the least amount of heartbreak and bloodshed of all the ones I've been involved in." Sephiroth sought solace in his drink rather than comment, and Scar did likewise. "Oh like you guys know so much about successful relationships." "Yes but at least we're never going to sink low enough to try that!" Both of them said it in the unison they had expected. "Fine, then, if you guys know so much about where to look for love why don't you tell me where it is?"

"A female werewolf who's physically old enough to be called a woman, mentally naive enough to be called a girl, and happens to be a member of a race which is an ancient enemy of the one which while being no direct relation to me, still makes up a considerable portion of my body."

"My dead brother's dead wife who my brother wasn't willing to leave as dead. So after she died he sacrificed a multitude of my people in order to bring her back to life. Or at least create a doll with her appearance who technically has all of her memories except that they're repressed. So between trying to spur on the people I'm trying to kill and murdering them herself, we run into each other now and again. Mainly she tries to kill me, and I try to kill her which is okay of course because due to the nature of her new state of existence, whenever she 'dies' she just consumes somebody else's life to renew her own."

Vlad was quite pleased with this knowledge. "See! And you guys think that I was messed up just for taking part in a relationship that had nothing to do with procreation." They all put down their drinks and then somehow the poisonous question escaped Sephiroth's lips. "Did you ever tell them you loved them?"

Scar shook his head. "Never seemed like a good time while she was married to my brother and while we were at each other's throats I didn't think it would achieve much. Which was probably why I jumped in front of that hail of bullets. Just so that I could finally let her know I loved her. Which however satisfying it was in the action, the result, just wasn't worth it."

Vlad shook his head. "The girl that I'm involved in a romance with now, basically I have to do anything she says. So I have fun passively aggressively torturing her with my offers of immortality and infinite power if she'll betray her church and basically everything her parents ever taught her. I know she's gonna give in sooner or latter. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but some day she's gonna give in. If I told her that I loved her it would totally derail this entire image of a heartless soulless monster that I've been working so hard to build up! Do you realize how hard I worked to build that image up in the first place?"

"I never did either. Wasn't sure of it, or afraid of what it would mean if I was. You know, all the standard reasons. Maybe we should give it a try though? I mean countless people manage to pair off every year. Its three simple words how hard can I be?" "Romancing dead woman." "Deflowering armed virgin." Sephiroth responded in kind. "Screw you jackasses. That's the first thing I'm going to do when I see her again, one way or another I'm going to tell her I love her..."

Sephiroth choked on his words however and came to a stop. "What's the matter?" "Yeah I liked hearing you make promises that your never gonna keep." Sephiroth glared at Vlad. "It's just that if I tell it to her, then its just going to give her an even bigger excuse to lean on me. I won't have that, I'd be happy to be in a romance with her if only I knew she could stand on her own two, or four, or however many legs she has in the situation." "I'd be happy if she was a vampire." "I think I like her personality better after she died. Less sitting on hills watching the world go by with my brother, more killing State Alchemists."

"I'm not saying I want someone like Mirri. I mean I know where that relationship would go, which is nowhere, there would be no emotional depth. Just me kicking ass, her kicking ass, me kicking ass, her kicking ass, me kicking ass, her kicking ass." Vlad's eyes were misting over. "Dude, how can you not want a relationship like that? You'll have to introduce me to this girl sometime." Sephiroth thought quickly. "She's already taken, or to be more exact she's already taken somebody."

Now it was Vlad and Scar's turn to comment at the exact same moment. "All the good ones are." "I'm just saying that there has to be some middle ground between kicking ass as the activity that consumes most of your free time, and growing flowers." "Growing flowers that kick ass? You know, like giant Venus flytraps." "Thank you for yet another stunning intellectual addition to the conversation, Vlad."

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My Own Personal Jesus: In what distant deeps or skies, burnt the fire of thine eyes? On what wings dare he aspire? What the hand dare seize the fire?

"Hello little albatross." James sat down next to Sephiroth. "Things are pretty cramped in here aren't they?" Sephiroth considered how much extra space James probably had in his mind and nodded. "Thirty years is a long time to remember everything James." James looked around at all the blackness and then back to Sephiroth. "If you don't have room, why don't you just let some of it go?"

Let some of it go. Such a novel notion, Sephiroth had never let anything go without a fight. James squinted slightly at Sephiroth as his greeting finally hit him. "What's with that? I thought albatrosses were bad luck."

"James that's the problem when you're force fed modern culture, you never realize that developed due to the previous culture. The albatross used to be the sailors' friend. Then one day some idiot was hungry and pulled out a crossbow, and THWACK albatross stew for dinner, and plenty of bad luck as a dessert that would last him all his life." James worked that out in his uncluttered mind and eventually came to both possible conclusions.

"So am I an albatross or are you?" As usual James saw into things with the kind of deep understanding that only a simple mind can produce. "I mean, you were Shinra's General until they left you in Nibelhiem, and I was, well for a while Jenova had me wrapped around her finger, or tentacle, or whatever." That "for a while" was about sixty seconds, and Sephiroth wished his tenure dealing with both Shinra and Jenova had been so short. "James do you know what they say about birds of a feather?"

"Yeah." Sephiroth couldn't stop himself from smiling. "Well then I think you have your answer right there." James did and scratched an ear though the way he looked at Sephiroth goaded him into saying more. "But then, James, we're all albatrosses. That's the natural human condition, an albatross. We come into this world so pure, so clean, so nice, and then it happens. Some bastard with a crossbow or a needle full of Jenova cells shoots us down so we limp off, and swear to get revenge on them and everyone. The saddest part is part of our revenge involves us turning into them. By the time its over we don't know who we are and we're shooting down our own albatrosses just to watch them fall. James, do something for me." "What Seph?" "Keep flying, keep dodging those bolts that everyone else is firing." James was now very confused. "What bolts?"

Somehow knowing that James didn't understand made Sephiroth happier. ""Heh, 'what bolts?' 'In what furnace was thy brain?' No, nothing albatross, nothing at all. Just keep flying, and some day when I'm able to grow a new set of wings, maybe I'll rejoin you in the sky. For now all I can do is grab a crossbow and start mowing down the people aiming at you." "I'll save a section of it just for you, Seph."

Sephiroth knew it was all in his mind, but that was his trick on the world. If it was all in his mind then it meant that somewhere in whoever he was today, somewhere in there was James. Somewhere if he looked deep enough into himself he could grow wings and dance in the sky without being held down be the weight of being Sephiroth. He could be happy with who he was as long as he was sure of who he could be.

FN: I should note that for "My Own Personal Jesus" I didn't use a line from a song. It was the fifth through eighth lines of "The Tiger", by William Blake Sephiroth's line in quotation marks also comes from it. Bonus points to anyone who realized it beforehand. More bonus points to anyone else who can tell me how I can get John Cleese's voice yelling "ALABATROSS" out of my head. I should point out that this chapter was added in at the last moment. Also, I had just started watching Full Metal Alchemist, does it show?

Oh and there's a theme running through the subchapter titles, a moogle to whoever can tell me.

OWAN: Don't worry, I'll come over in a few days and hit you with a rubber chicken. Hair of the dog, what? And what have I told you about offering people Moogles?


	28. Chapter 28

Twighlight Perfection

Chapter 28

"She's cold and she's cruel, but she knows what she's doing"

FN: Here's to a year of Twilight! Thanks to those of our readers who are still with us. Particular appreciation to those who have taken the time to leave us reviews and designate this story under their favorites, nudge, nudge, wink wink, say no more, say no more.

OWAN: Albatross!

"Wow would you look at that?" James' words did a decent job of summing up what they saw. The group had been gathered in Mideel by a call from Aeris to Melkore because of what she found. There was no doubt about it, this was... what it was. It was a giant piece of materia, about 15 feet through, and had taken many men to move it into the hospital where it now rested. Thankfully, because of its basically spherical shape, they had been able to more or less roll it to its current location rather than pick it up, which probably would have required construction equipment.

The huge piece of materia encased General Sephiroth like a bug trapped in amber. Much to James' surprise, Vincent was relatively calm. This was chiefly because Vincent had established something of a hierarchy of freaking out whenever even the smallest thing happened to Seph...iroth. Not this time however, instead he just looked at Sephiroth, and said nothing. Niro tapped the huge thing with his gun like one would tap a bell to hear its chime.

"James, knowing Sephiroth as long as I have, I doubt this would kill him." Mirri opened her jacket and pulled out one of her blades in a considerably more mundane way then she normally did, and slammed it against the object. The blade splintered up to its "hilt" and Mirri dropped her useless weapon in disgust. "But, whatever it is, I don't think we're going to be able to break it open any time soon."

Alex, in his human shape, was studying the thing much more intently then any of others. "His face, I do not think that we have to worry about him at all. It is a look of serenity, and not that of one who is dead." Melkore was starting to look like he was tempted to try and duplicates Mirri's efforts to destroy what lay before him with his weapon of choice. "Okay then, but what good does it do us to know that he's still alive if we can't get him out of there? He might as well be in a coma, or paralyzed from the hair down. Knowing that he is alive doesn't help us any."

Aeris cast an irritated glare at Melkore, far more irritated than anything James had seen her give anyone before. "If Sephiroth is still alive, we don't want him to wake up alone. We need to keep somebody here to alert the others if he gets any better." Melkore shot his own glare back at her. "Aeris, I may specialize in weapons, but knowing how to kill starts with knowing how to heal. You just have to do things in reverse which, granted, is easier, but you still have to start with some medical knowledge. There are all kinds of ways that people can still be alive yet not really 'alive' the way we think of it. If I had to take a guess, I'd say this could be some kind of mako poisoning, except even more advanced. I don't think there's anything anyone can do that would make him better." "We can pray."

The two looked at each other, and Mirri broke the stalemate by grabbing Melkore by the ear. "James, Niro, let's roll." James didn't need to be told twice and followed, Niro took one quick look back at Sephiroth, and then he followed. Outside, Mirri was busily shaking Melkore like a rag doll.

"Melkore, I thought I told you this before, never argue with a woman in love!' With that, Mirri dropped him. "Now then, you three guys are here for a simple reason. With Sephiroth no longer able to lead us, someone else has to take charge. Also, since no one else seems to be volunteering for the position I'll take it. If any of you feel like arguing with me, I'll settle it nice and quick."

James wasn't about to argue with Mirri, she had been Sephiroth's second in command, so it made sense she was now in command. "Okay then, now Melkore, you told me that the thing which took down the huge monstrosity was your creation, so tell us all about it." Melkore got up, did what he could to brush the dust off his outfit, and began to explain.

"Okay then, the thing in question is called Melkore's Mako Cannon, or just the Mako Cannon. I drew up plans for it during the Wuitain War, but I never really expected to see it built or used when the war ended just after I got a prototype design finished. The Mako Cannon is designed to be the ultimate siege weapon. One hit from it can take out an entire city. Not because of the explosion, but when the shell finally lands, its detonation contaminates the area with mako in its gaseous state.

Because this is heavier then air, it will cling low to the ground as it moves around, and ordinary people would choke and die on the fumes, though SOLDIERS would be unaffected." There was a very long pause and Mirri looked ready to pick Melkore back up and start shaking him again. "What, in the name of hell, would make you want to build, something, like that? Your telling me Shinra could depopulate an entire city with the push of a button?"

Melkore looked like he wished he was wearing glasses so he could adjust them as he spoke. "Not really. The Mako Cannon is wonderful weapon, but like any weapon, it has its weakness. A trebuchet without a rock to throw is just a huge piece of wood, a cannon without a cannon ball is nothing more then a chunk of iron, a gun is nothing without bullets." Mirri's hand was now very firmly planted on Melkore, and was slowly starting to lift him off the ground yet again.

"What. Do. You. mean?" With a rabid desire to salvage what precious little was left of his dignity, Melkore started talking. "The Mako Cannon doesn't use ordinary shells! To fire it you need something special, you need the Huge Materia that form in Mako Reactors over time to supply the power! The things are about as big as the one that Sephiroth is trapped in right now, and they contain incredible amounts of energy. More power then a single reactor could ever grant on it's own, and that energy is needed just to fire the Mako Cannon. Shinra probably used the Junon Huge Materia to fire that shot which I spent on the WEAPON. So Shinra, literarily, has spent its bolt. They may have my Mako Cannon, but they can't fire it." Mirri reluctantly let go of Melkore, though she still stared daggers at him. "What about the Midgar reactors? That sounds like Shinra has six shots, which is more then enough for them to hold the world hostage."

"They have no shots." Melkore made the pronouncement with total confidence. "Getting the Huge Materia out is not necessarily difficult, but it takes time. The reactor must be turned off, and given time to drain itself of mako so the Huge Materia can be retrieved. Midgar's reactors are connected, if one is shut down they all will be. Shinra could have those six shots, but all of Midgar would grind to a halt. To a get another shot they need some place where there is a reactor but it hasn't really been in use for a long time. Like Nibelhiem."

"Or Corel." James' ears perked up, whenever Mirri spoke in that tone of voice it could only mean one thing. It was the voice she used when she was about to kick Reno in the balls. Since no Turk seemed to be present for miles it probably meant that Shinra was about to get a metaphorical kick in one of its less than metaphorical weak points. Niro self-consciously checked his gun for a moment before he met Mirri's eyes. "Looks like we won't be sitting around much longer."

James nodded though he didn't need to check his weapon, he knew that his gloves were ready at all times. "So the question is, how are they going to move it? It would take all of us six to life that thing Seph's in, and we're enhanced." Mirri turned from facing Melkore to James and answered his question with total confidence. "There's a section of train tracks that runs straight from Corel to Costa Del Sol. From there, it can be shipped by freighter to Junon. In my parents' time, it was used to ship coal.

The track, however, runs right through the area where everyone has set up their homes after the town was torched. Those rails have been badly maintained since they haven't been needed, the entire train might slip off the tracks, particularly if whoever is driving that sucker moves it at top speed." Niro checked his gun again. "Sounds like loads of fun, those three don't know what they're missing."

Mirri wrapped an arm around James' neck and did the same to Niro. "Don't worry guys, it's time we all take a moment to learn from the master." As she spoke, she turned slightly applying pressure in the right places to prompt James and Niro to turn towards Melkore and kneel as she did. "Dr. Morningstar, I go on bended knee to your unarguable knowledge in this area. Teach us master, teach us the glories of the roadtrip!"

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"Target one in range!" The ordinary crew of the Valar was willing enough to work for the man who had designed and, to a great extent, created the ship they now called home. If they hadn't been willing to work for Melkore, he would have had to find a new crew, which would have been painful as hell. Thankfully they where not only willing to work but pretty good at their jobs, and this was a big example of it.

Melkore had explained the mission to them, and they had got to work. The Corel reactor was largely hidden by mountains and difficult to reach by foot. Thus Shinra, who always followed the path of least resistance, would have sent men in by air. That was the guess that Mirri had come up with and it had just proved true. The sophisticated radar equipment on the Valar made it possible to 'see' the simple troop helicopter long before it would know they where coming.

The radar image also showed that the helicopter was hovering without lateral movement, yet not landing. That position suggested one possible idea, it was deploying SOLDIERS who where descending down on ropes. It would make things more difficult then if the thing was landed and deploying ordinary guards. Granted if it was on the ground they wouldn't have picked it up on radar at this range given the twisting mountains surrounding the Corel Reactor.

Melkore examined the radar blip for a moment then turned to his partners in crime. "Mirri, why don't we send Shinra a greeting? " Niro was currently navigating, James was actually steering, Melkore was supervising, and Mirri was in charge of weapons. This was rather like saying that a mountain lion was in charge of the mountain it lived on.

Even before Melkore had spoken Mirri had been looking over the various switches and buttons like a kid in a toy store. Finding the right one, she flipped a switch to arm the weapons, and then pushed a button before turning back to Melkore. "Don't worry, I'm sure they'll have a blast."

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Most of the first class SOLDIERS had been upset about being sent to get a hunk of rock from the middle of nowhere. Still, they served Shinra loyally and had done what they had been told. They had been working for about half an hour when it happened. They had already retrieved the stone in question and loaded it on to the train that had been left on the tracks next to the reactor. Then it was all shot to hell in the blink of an eye.

The helicopter that should have been their ride home except for the few who would have stayed on the train exploded. If anyone had been watching very closely they could have seen the small missile that slammed into the helicopter reducing it to a raging inferno, but no one did. Thus, they where instantly reduced from well trained and disciplined SOLDIERS to animals with only one thought: survival. They messily boarded the train and started off as fast as they could.

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"Damn it, they're getting away!" You didn't need radar to see the train moving along the tracks leading out of the Juno reactor. She quickly began to study switches but Melkore apparently saw the her doing this out of one corner of his eye. "Bad Mirri! If we fire on the train and destroy the Huge Materia, well, let's just say it won't be pretty." Mirri turned her attention from the multitude of inviting choices to Melkore. "Fine then, what do you suggest we do? Just watch them get away?"

Suddenly, the Valar jerked violently beneath Mirri and only by holding a well-placed iron bar was she able to keep her footing. The culprit was obvious. "Sorry Mirri. I was just seeing how this thing handled. It's actually a lot smother then I thought it would be, I could probably almost land this baby on top of the train!" Mirri felt an idea kindle as everyone else (except James) was struck by a sudden sense of dread. "Actually, that's not a bad idea. Let's be about it..."

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Niro Rose looked down at the situation. After a moment he realized that maybe if he had simply been a Shinra killer his life would have been much less taxing. That was not the case, however, so he prepared for what he was about to do with grim determination. Others did not posses the same sense of inner tranquility. "We're gonna die." "Shut up, Melkore."

"Mirri, we are jumping off the Valar which is flying far lower than it's supposed to go in mountainous terrain, on top of a moving train, which we're going to jump onto, without parachutes. James came up with this idea and you 'improved it' what part of this is not suicidal?" Melkore's words echoed Niro's beliefs in spirit, if not exactly the fine points. However, when necessary, a Firecat will step in where fools dare not tread. James took the hurdle of the Valar's railing with ease, and jumped off of the ship.

It was only about a 20 foot drop, nothing truly dangerous to a SOLDIER, let alone James, but the momentums involved were staggering. Niro and Mirri followed James with Melkore regretfully bringing up the rear. They all jumped, they all plummeted, and they all landed safely. Still, it was one of the few times in his life that Niro would say he was frightened.

There was only one thin strand that Niro could hold onto, conservation of momentum. If the Valar was moving at close to the same speed at the train, then Niro was moving with an equal speed. Thus, they weren't really jumping from a moving airship to a moving train, they where just jumping. Thankfully, they all managed to land on the moving train rather then miss it, so things were good so far. As the three of them started to stand up, James was already on his feet.

The group of SOLDIERS on the train behind them was on their feet as well. They raised their guns, but they were already too late. Strands of wire sliced through the air, as well as the coupling between train cars with equal ease. With their car no longer connected to the one James and the others were, they found themselves in an odd situation. They fired as accurately as they could, but their targets were being quickly pulled away by a velocity they no longer possessed. James smiled as he looked at his handiwork. "Stage two is done, so now we just have to deal with the train!"

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"Put your hands up and keep 'em that way!" An odd order coming from a man with a guitar. But Melkore noted with delight the way that the men's eyes slowly realized that they where actually staring down the six barrels of Sylvia, Melkore Morningstar's weapon of choice. The two engineers Shinra had brought with them put their hands up, and kept them up.

"Is this a robbery?" Mirri jumped past Melkore and pushed both of the engineers aside. "No, it's a science experiment. I believe if I can maneuver this train just right I can take us back in time to when my family was respected by this town!" Mirri only needed one look to tell which lever she wanted. "Everyone hold onto something!"

James, Niro, and Melkore followed Mirri's advice and grabbed hold of various parts of the train. The engineers did the same after only a moment's hesitation. Mirri pulled the lever she had selected down all the way. The train instantly jumped to new life. If it had been going fast before, that was nothing now. With only one compartment to slow it down and the engine set to full blast, the train tore down the tracks.

Gears screeched, metal whined, and the train pressed onward. Above the rushing of wind and wail of metal Mirri almost couldn't hear Melkore's protests (wasn't that a shame) even though he shouted them. "MIRRI WHAT IN THE NAME OF WHATEVER YOU BELIVE IN ARE YOU DOING?" The world seemed to blur with the incredible speed that the train took.

Mirri smiled back at Melkore as she shouted. "I'M GOING TO SLAM THIS THING DOWN COREL'S THROAT! YOU DON'T GET RESPECT FOR SAVING THE WORLD UNLESS YOU CAN MAKE IT PERSONAL TO THE PEOPLE INVOLVED!" "MIRRI YOU ARE PURE EVIL!" "THANK YOU!" "THAT WASN'T MEANT AS A COMPLIMENT!" "WELL THEN, THAT'S YOUR FAULT FOR USING AMBIGUOUS TERMS, ISN'T IT!"

"WHAT THE HELL IS AMBIGUOUS ABOUT 'PURE EVIL'?" "YOU CAN TELL ME!" A third voice interrupted the conversation at this point, a voice rather unmistakable due to it's lack of fear. "LOOK AT US GO! WE'RE COMING TO A TURN!" "MIRRI, SO HELP ME GOD IF I SURVIVE THIS I WILL MAKE YOU PAY!"

Before Melkore could issue any more threats (or Niro any more prayers) they hit the turn going full speed. The train managed to stay on the tracks, that was the best thing that any sane person could say about it.

"WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" Then of course there was James.

"Mirri, when I lose my lunch, if there is any justice in the world, it will end up all over you!" "Flattery will get you nowhere Melkore." Having exhausted hurling insults Melkore moved onto his rarely seen spiritual side. "Caffeine is my shepherd; I shall not doze. It maketh me to wake in green pastures: It leadeth me beyond the sleeping masses. It restoreth my buzz: it leadeth me in the paths of consciousness for its name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of addiction, I will fear no Equal (tm). For thou art with me; thy cream and thy sugar they comfort me. Thou preparest a carafe before me in the presence of The Starbucks. Thou anointest my day with pep; my mug runneth over. Surely richness and taste shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the House of Mochas forever."

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The entire town of Corel could hear it coming before they saw it. It sounded like a renegade beast of hell. It looked even more like something that had escaped from the lower levels of the abyss. It bore down on the town from the mountains approaching at an... unsafe... speed. Sooner or later the train would leap from it's tracks and destroy everything nearby, the could only hope it wouldn't happen as it passed through the town.

As every single resident slowly drew a collective breath it happened. The sound of fingernails screeching on a blackboard would be a merciful way to put it. The huge iron vehicle came to an abrupt and unexpected halt. The wheels stopped moving it forward, in fact the wheels locked closed in close to the blink of an eye. If the sound was horrible, at least it was caused by a miracle happening.

With the wheels no longer supporting the things forward momentum, it could only "coast" to a complete stop. As it did so before the assemblage of slapdash houses that was Corel, a single "human" body was thrown from the train. He was dressed entirely in red and had evidently been using both hands to hold onto his hat rather then holding onto something that would have kept him on the train.

As the people slowly approached it the being spoke. "That was fun! Can we do it again?" His eyes were currently going round in his head like the train's wheels used to have been doing, but it was clear in which general direction his gaze and comment were intended. Very slowly another human being stepped down from the train, and her exit was completed with much more grace then her partner's.

Mirri "Catwarrior" Lufkin took one look around what was left of Corel along with the people who inhabited it, and spoke. "People of Corel, I have returned!" As Mirri spoke, the Valar appeared overhead after finally managing to catch up to the train after it's slapdash procession down the mountains. Not that the way the huge airship seemed to block out the sky (and the sun, creating a minor eclipse-like effect) at Mirri's pronouncement went particularly amiss in creating the effect Mirri desired.

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"You know Mirri, I think we got a lot better reception this time around." Mirri did not click her tongue in irritation the way she would have if Melkore made that statement, James Firecat would always be a master of the obvious. There had only been one compartment left connected to the train, the one closet to the engine, which by luck also had the Huge Materia in it.

The Valar was currently lowering a winch down to retrieve it because no one knew what else to do with it. Once it was removed James would get to work and he was confident he could turn the entire train into scrap metal one piece at a time. Mirri for her part, had stood on the train turning it into an impromptu podium for her to hurl her ideas to her people from.

"People of Corel, look at yourselves! Shinra burns this town to the ground, and we let them win because of it? Forget the indignity of allowing them to destroy our homes, why are we allowing them to stop us? I don't know about you, but for every time Shinra burns this town to the ground, I would be willing to build it back up again! But frankly, that's not enough for me, you see this train? I'm going to ram it down Shinra's throat! Shinra has the audacity to burn my town down, I'm going to do the same thing to them, and I've already started! Two reactors down, six to go!"

Niro had watched the entire thing, then given a macabre glare to Mirri as he stood at her side and whispered words in her ear. "Today Corel, tomorrow... remember thou art mortal!" Mirri had disregarded his warning and taken a moment to chastise Niro, she was in charge. "Don't worry about it Niro. Conquering other nations is more Sephiroth's gig than mine. I'm just giving these people something to believe in." "Sure you are. I'll go get some palm leafs to fan you with, one for me and one for James."

Niro might have had a more skeptical view of what was the best humanity could achieve, but then that was why Mirri had James. Whatever he lacked in any arena he made up for as possibly the world's best mental backscratcher (even more so because the only payment that he asked for was a much more literal scratch behind the ears) for Mirri's purposes.

"I wonder what life will be like when all this is over?" "Don't have a clue Mirri, but who cares? By the time we finish with Jenova and Shinra anything else is gonna be pretty pathetic by comparison." As Mirri began to scratch James' ears she was quite sure that both of them were thinking the same thoughts. "Ooh, that's the spot!"

FN: For those of you who don't recognize Mirri's line about the train robbery being "A Science Experiment" my heart goes out to you.

End Chapter


	29. Chapter 29

OWAN: Updated… now let me sleep!

Chapter 29 "I Wanna Know Why History Repeats"

Alex looked at Vincent and smiled as they sat around waiting for the others to come back. "You know, there's a precedent to this kind of thing." Vincent shrugged, glad to have shade to recline in. "Yeah I know, you already told me the story about Barghest." Alex gave Vincent a light kick in the chest, granted in Get of Fenris this was the equivalent of a laughing slap on the back.

"Do you think I'm in the habit of repeating myself? I mean the story goes farther then that. I take it you know that your Vlad Tepes never actually existed?" Vincent, who was picking up on the "body language" of Garou pretty well, stood up and punched Alex's chest with his right hand. "Of course I know that Vlad Tepes didn't exist. Granted knowing you as I do, your going to tell me where the story originally came from, right?" "Right."

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(A very long time ago)

There is no word in Cetra for 'castle'. The closest you might come was "great home", but that was because castles were a thing of Jenova. They were built to control and command everything around them instead of coexisting with it. And in the tallest tower of this castle a woman sat drinking a crimson liquid from a jewel encrusted chalice. The castle was a surrounded by a great verity of bodies that hung limply from great sticks that came to metal points, many of them silver.

As the woman sipped her drink, a flood of black shadows entered the room. She casually looked at the mass of shadows from which a pair of red eyes emerged and offered her guest a drink from her cup. "This is hardly in keeping. I would have expected you to come in claws swinging swatting my servants left and right." The shadows finally came fully together, and turned into a man. He had shoulder-length white hair, and he was wearing midnight black which contrasted strongly with the woman's brilliant white clothing.

Of course the woman's hair contrasted with her outfit the same way the man's did his, it was jet black except for a single streak of white parting it. "I saw no reason to slay a swarm of pathetic flies just because they were caught in a spider's web. If I wanted to do something I would crush the spider between my claws, like this." As the man spoke his fingernails lengthened into claws for a moment before retracting back. The woman evidently suspected that her guest wasn't interested in a drink, so she just took another sip from it.

"Yes, its been made quite clear to me from various difference sources that you don't survive having Barghest pay you a visit, even if you are dead to start with. You also aren't the type to give someone a five minute head start. So what did you come here for? Oh and do you mind if I call in Rofrud and the others?" The man known as Barghest didn't comment one way or another, so the woman just snapped her fingers. Three masses of shadows flowed into the room and took the form of three men.

The one closest to the woman was also the youngest, he was a red head, and he looked at the man with open awe. "Wow it's Barghest! I'm gonna get killed by a master, do me, do me!" Barghest's eyebrows ever so slowly rose upward. "Varda, I've forced a few of Jenova's best to tell me about you. But though I've heard several voices screaming in pain tell me you seek odd companions, none of them managed to prepare me for this." Varda gave a whistle and a man dressed in black and white walked in carrying a tray with four more jewel encrusted chalices.

"You'll have to forgive Rofrud in general and me in particular for not bringing you a drink. I know you do, but somehow I doubt you'd come to meet on anything less than a full stomach. Anyway, Rofrud used to be human, as opposed to my other two mates, so he's bound to be exocentric. Granted, when you can exist for as long as I, sorry as long we can, you come to value those who can surprise you in any way. That's his job after all. Three husbands, one for entertainment, one for stability and advice, and one for… other kinds of entertainment. You should try it some time. But then, you wolves and Cetra are hopelessly focused on monogamy. So, what did you come for?"

Varda gestured toward a piece of furniture obviously made from the body of some kind of animal, which Barghest seated himself on. "It's well known that you decided to betray the Wyrm, that and she has regretted her attempts to make you change your position. Mainly because of your… 'humans', was it you said? You realize that they're an affront to Gaia in every sense of the word?" The servant who had brought the tray made a quick and surreptitious exit from the room after giving his mistress her new drink.

"Rofrud, you're going to have to put your re-death wish on hold. It looks like our friend has come to talk of hunting others. Now forgive me, Barghest, but it seems like everything on this planet is an affront to Gaia except you. Besides, it's not like I took a bunch of dirt and gave it life, or ripped a rib out of somebody's chest and somehow turned it into a being. You see, my humans are the equivalent of domesticated Cetra. I inbred them for optimal performance in various areas. Speed of reaching full maturity, intelligence that lets them follow my orders and understand why they should."

"Because you'll kill them otherwise?" Varda nodded approvingly. "As I said, the necessary intelligence. So what did you come here for?" "The Cetra are dieing." "Boo freaking hoo. You're going to pause for a moment so that I can drink enough blood to cry my tears. Why should I give a fang what happens to you Cetra? That's why I left that pathetic continent, the entire war was nothing but foolishness."

Barghest stood up, walked over to Varda and picked her up by the throat in the space of a heartbeat, had anyone in the room had one. "You know, it's not too late for me to kill you." Varda's voice was slightly strained by her position. "You make a very good point." Following a brief tearing sound, Barghest dropped Varda and turned around. There was small wound on his back and a slash in his clothing. Rofrud looked up at Barghest and smiled apologetically before looking down at the pointed tips his hands currently ended in as if he hadn't meant to use them. "Umm, Varda, it's starting to look a lot like I won't have to put my demise on hold."

Barghest picked up Rofrud by the ruff of his red coat. "You know that was a very honerable thing you did, defending your mate. But after my death, I've come to realize, that honor isn't everything." Barghest threw Rofrud through the nearest wall, sending vampire and stone alike showering into the hallway. Barghest turned back to Varda and continued speaking. "You and I both know what will happen if Jenova wins."

Varda rubbed her neck and then nodded. "She's told me. We move from planet to planet and destroy everything. At least she does, but that's foolish of her. This world offers so many pleasures for us, this is such a grand game, why should we seek to end it?" Barghest shrugged as he looked at the red chalices. "We are unlikely to reach a compromise on that issue. However, soon the Cetra will be unable to face Jenova. Our only hope to defeat Jenova is for us to face her together."

Varda eyed Barghest carefully. "Then what? Without Jenova, what prevents you from ending me?" Barghest helped Rofrud back up and dusted him off, removing a few pieces of brick that had landed on him. "I'm a Garou: my word is my bond." All of them knew where that was going. "Of course, I'm not about to say that you can stay here. You and your humans are not going to draw one more breath or drink one more sip of blood on Gaia. But the Cetra have enough magic to send you to another planet, and I'm sure that you'll be able to screw that world over like a bitch in heat, and you can take all of your husbands with you." Varda crossed her legs sitting on nothing.

"You need me more than I need you. I can always go back to Jenova, you can't. So instead you me and my husbands go some place, and we look after each other. My humans stay. No vampires will be left on this planet, but I didn't bring my humans here from the Northern Continent just so that they could get uprooted again. I'm not changing my mind. Make your choice." Barghest made it.

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Jenova looked down on Varda and smiled as much as she could. "A most excellent gift, my child. You have come back into your mother's good graces, this white wolf has caused a great many problems for me. Your humans also show much promise." The white wolf in question was impaled on four separate sticks, one held by Varda and each of her husbands. Varda looked at Jenova and smiled.

"Actually about that, well mom it's like this. We've had a rocky history, what with you making me and my race just to serve as wolfhounds. Mother, did it ever cross your mind that if you want a wolfhound you should breed for something with the right amount of intelligence to hunt wolves and not a hair more? Because to be quite frank I'm through with you. After all, you don't even know that when we die we turn to dust."

A large pair of red eyes suddenly opened and looked right into Jenova's face. Varda gave a sharp tug as did her husbands, the sticks did a lot of damage tearing back through Barghest's flanks as they were yanked free, but Barghest had a vampire's and a Garou's' ability to regenerate. He had spent an hour impaled on those sticks that came to silver points (Varda with her intricate knowledge of what was inside a body (obtained by ripping it out slowly) had made sure that the sticks went through the lungs and other useless organs, and the wounds vanished almost instantly.

"Hello Jormangundr, my name is Fenris." Varda and her husbands twirled their pikes and drove them right through Jenova before she even knew what was happening. Barghest hit Jenova like a felled tree hits an unlucky squirrel beneath it. Her head was ripped clean from her body which sprayed green liquid into the sky. Varda ran a hand through the liquid and then smiled to herself as she licked her hands. She stumbled for a moment, and Rofurd caught her but she straightened up quickly. "Nothing to worry about dear, just a power rush. You boys take some of her blood as well, makes Garou blood taste like chocobo piss, no offence Barghest. Now then, mother..."

Varda picked Jenova's head up off the ground and smiled at her while Jenova just looked back and somehow managed to speak. "Varda how could you?" Varda casually tossed Jenova's head into the air before catching it again with her other hand. "I told you that I'd be getting back to my family today, didn't I? Vampires have been around for less than a century, Cetra have existed longer than even you could count.

Thus, from the view point of history, I have infinitely more in common with Barghest then with you, so like I said, I'm getting back to my roots. Who knows how I might have turned out if I hadn't been a vampire? I might have been a Garou, I do rather like the way the Black Furies look at life. What gives you a right to call me your child? Even as we speak a treachery that I know would impress even your mind is destroying you.

You gathered your vampires in one place to celebrate my return, and now Barghest's four legged friends are just about to fall on them. Of 'about to' are the key words, because my humans have a great aptitude for fire, and your vampires are hiding in a forest. All that the Garou have to do is pick off those ones who manage to somehow get out, which won't be many. You can't get past a solid ring of fire in shadows or by flying, not when the forest over you is burning also.

As the forest burns, well it'll be sunrise in an hour, and all my 'kin' with no shade, even you can figure it out, because that's what you have to offer us Jenova, burning. Oh yes there's power, but you don't offer that to us, we can take it, just like I did, just like my husbands will.

You can take your Great Journey, your Blessed Mission, and The Burden Of Being A Superior Being, and shove them down your throat. I've got a new phrase for you "Manifest Destiny" and I have other ideas about what vampires should be, and they don't involve being your lapdogs. Because if you wanted us to be your hunting dogs you should have bred with just that much intelligence and not a wisker more, but you didn't, so here we are." All you can offer us is to turn this world into a funeral pyre like you have to so many more. Why? What the hell did the universe do to you?

From where I stand, you're nothing but a child, a young pup tearing up everything it can reach. Well in my castle, mindless animals who misbehave are punished. That's what I want, and that's what the Cetra can give me, a castle, order, rules, and of course me at the top. Now granted because I'm at the top I don't actually punish animals, I have other's for that. Barghest I believe you would like to finish this?" Varda threw Jenova to Barghest who caught her gladly. "STOP!"

Barghest looked up at the group of Cetra who had emerged from their hiding places once Jenova had been dealt with. "What in the name of Fenris do you want?" The man who had given the command was just an ordinary Cetra, not even Garou. "It is never right to extinguish a defenseless flame of life." Jenova's head tried to leap from Barghest's hands, but he held on tight. "Really? You call this defenseless? You would not end the life of one who has killed so many of your and my kin? What do you suggest we do then? Let this serpent reassemble herself?"

The Cetra was far too self assured for Barghest's liking. "We'll bury her in ice where she will never again be able to do any harm." Barghest tossed Jenova's head to the Cetra and snorted, shifting back to his Cetra shape. "Fine. Indeed, this is a day for realizations. I have suddenly discovered that I prefer the company of my natural enemies to that of my own kind. At least _they_ understand responsibility.

Varda, let us go find a better den. Maybe a planet that is populated by beasts of every conceivable type that all want to kill us. Then we can go around slaying them without an ounce of hesitation. It's better than this world filled with beautiful monsters and idiots." Before the Cetra could make any kind of rebuke, the four vampires and Barghest vanished into black shadows which suddenly turned into bright silver light as five beings rode the Lifestream out to a new world.

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"And that's how the Wyrm was defeated, if not destroyed. Due to our combined skills and your race's natural tendency towards treachery the battle was won, and due to mines towards empathy the war was lost." "We won't take half measures this time." "Damn straight." "Just one problem. Look up."

Vincent Valentine and Alexander Diamondclaw looked up at death. Both of them faced their imminent demise with much less hesitation then most people would have. Granted, Vincent and Alexander were by no means human. Alex was a Get of Fenris, his long natural lifespan had in no way made him uncomfortable with death. Bred by many generations of Get of Fenris and wild wolves, Alex was a culmination of the Planet's ability to defend itself just as much as the thing he now faced.

Vincent Valentine had been a Turk, and day after day he had washed the blood of those who's only crime was getting on Shinra's bad side from his hands. Metaphorically at least, because Vincent had always worn gloves and most of his killing was from long range. This had been improved upon by his transformation to a vampire, because he was now already dead. He had already looked death in the eye, and death had blinked. Whatever happened next would happen next, but he awaited it calmly. "Know anything that will work against something that big?" /Against a WEAPON that also has Gaia's blessings? Not really.\ "Me either."

Vincent checked his guns, though he already knew that both were loaded and perfectly ready. Though the "bloody euphoria" had worn off from when he had drunken Alex's blood back in Junon, he was still in his younger state and close to the peak of his superhuman abilities, which he knew he would need all of. The thing was huge, and it was clearly a WEAPON , nothing like this could be purely natural. It was not as big as the Valar, but it could have matched the size of smaller airships, or swatted helicopters from the sky with ease. It was attacking the town of Mideel for reasons that any sane person could only guess at.

If it wanted to destroy human life and mako consumption it should have gone to Midgar rather than come here. But it was here, and there was nothing else to do about it. So the vampire and the werewolf stood their ground waiting for it to happen. The huge monster landed, hurled it's body against a rather insignificant building, completely obliterating it. Vincent and Alex rushed around behind the thing, and both of them hurled insults in tandem. /Over sized flying lizard! Your services are no longer needed, Gaia has the Get of Fenris to protect her!\ "Hey you! I'm going to use your skin to make me a new pair of boots! Then I'm going toss your head in front of Jenova as a gift before I kill her too! What chance do you have against her if you can't beat me?"

It was suicide and they both knew it. But they also both knew that they had to do anything they could to keep the WEAPON away from the hospital, away from Sephiroth and Aeris. The monster roared in rage as it turned around, apparently quite able to understand the heckling it was the receiving. It began to beat its wings again, not trying to lift its body up off the ground, but creating a mini hurricane around it by kicking up the air.

The buildings were fine, but Vincent and Alex were both thrown backwards by the winds. Both of them slammed up against the walls of a building like flies on a windshield, except with one key difference. /That is all the power you possess? Taste the wrath of Fenris!\ Before Alex even hit the ground he was shifting to his Crinos form, but even that 10 foot tall monster seemed small next to the WEAPON. Vincent didn't get up, but then he didn't fall either, he just stayed where he was, hanging in mid air and started shooting. He emptied Quicksilver's entire clip into the WEAPON, even if such things were less then fleabites.

They were nowhere near even being close to critical shots, they were nowhere near even hurting it, but it made Vincent feel better. Even as he did that, Alex reached the monster. He tore a chunk out of the monster's back leg, and the WEAPON screamed it pain. It kicked at Alex and slapped him with its wings.

Alex was close to half a ton of muscle and bone, and even taking a blow from the things back leg wasn't so bad. It tossed him away like a toy, but nothing broke. The moment he landed he snarled in defiance. Vincent finally dropped to the ground, and thumbed Quicksilver's release button. The empty clip shot out of the gun, as Vincent stood back up. He didn't reach for a new clip, the new clip came to him.

It flew out of one of his pocket and into his gun, all Vincent had to do was chamber it. He did that by grabbing the gun with his fangs to balance it and pulling it back. The WEAPON, however, was turning its attention to Vincent now that Alex was out of the picture for a moment. It looked at him and beams of intense light shot out of its eyes straight for Vincent. Vincent barely managed to dodge them by throwing himself flat on the ground again.

Those beams of light were hot enough to make most people's skins crack like dried paper, Vincent didn't want to think what they would have done to him. Lying prone, Vincent started shooting again. This time instead of the monster's side he got its face. None of the shots hit the thing's eyes, but these ones at least apparently pissed the WEAPON off even more. It stepped forward, and knocked Vincent aside with a swing of its neck.

Vincent went flying again, but had the presence of mind to turn into shadow before he hit a wall. Alex had managed to collect himself and get back in the fight so the WEAPON did not remain unoccupied for long. This time he was not simply nipping at the thing's heels, Alex was attacking it like he would a much larger chocobo. You had to get close to the thing's neck and crush it, that was how you killed something this big!

The WEAPONS wings, however, proved a great deterrence. They slapped around, beating at Alex with every flap. Quickly Alex realized getting close to the thing's neck was impossible, so he went for the next target. He began to tear at the thing's wings with every chance he got. Claw and bite marks soon peppered the thing's wings, as did bullet holes as Vincent opened up with third clip of bullets from Quicksilver and five bullets from Casull. The WEAPON rolled over, tossing Alex off of it, and beating its wings as it began to lift itself off. As it rose above the small town Vincent and Alex exchanged looks. "It's pissed." /Truly enraged.\ "Now or never."

Vincent dropped Quicksilver and used his right hand to reach into his clothing. He pulled out a very special black grenade, or at least it looked like a black grenade. He tossed it into the air before the monster had a chance to attack either of them. As the grenade spiraled up to its maximum height, Vincent clenched his fist. The grenade "exploded" though not in the normal sense of the word.

The grenade was composed entirely of shadow and blood, like most of his clothing. A shower of red mist covered the WEAPON. Vincent's "grenade" had the intended effect. If his blood reacted badly to Lifestream and mako, then the reverse must have been true as well.

In a few seconds the hypothesis was proven correct, the monster roared and thrashed in pain as Vincent's blood attacked the thing's skin like acid. It screamed, bellowed, and then it plummeted like a stone. Sadly it didn't have the decency to die quietly and peacefully, it slammed into the ground and broke through it. Alex and Vincent did the only thing they could at this point. They ran.

Alex shifted back to his full lupine form, quickly. Every single person in the town of Mideel heard a voice suddenly shout through their minds. /IF YOU VALUE YOUR LIVES, FLEE!\ Most of them did, and it was a good thing they did. The huge hole left by the WEAPON began to bubble over. Lifestream burst out of it as the WEAPON's body pushed it up forming a bubble that had to pop. Inside minutes almost the entire city of Mideel had been consumed by the Lifestream.

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Most people fled, but two people didn't. One because he couldn't, the other because she didn't want to. Aeris stayed with Sephiroth even as Alex's warning thundered through her mind. It happened quickly, which was one of the few good things about it. The hospital was near the spot where the WEAPON had landed, and thus a huge quantity of Lifestream surged over it. The green wave washed over both her and Sephiroth, pulling them under.

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/Damn!\ Vincent wasn't able to decipher what Alex said next. Not because his universal telepathy was suddenly failing, just that Vincent didn't know the meanings of the words Alex was using. The general gist of it was quite clear, however. Alex apparently was even better than Vincent in this area of "human" behavior. To judge from the sheer ferocity behind them and the quantity of words Alex was telepathically shrieking in Vincent's mind, he clearly knew how to swear a streak every color of the rainbow. /We've lost them.\

Alex finally managed to get himself back under control, and looked down at the hole before them with anger and contempt. The large opening bubbled with green Lifestream, but as Vincent looked down at it, but he knew something Alex didn't. Every light casts a shadow, and looking down at the ready supply of all the Lifestream he could ever need, Vincent knew he was now standing in the shade.

------------------------

Aeris suddenly found that she was a wolf. She didn't remembering transforming, and wondered if it had been some kind of internal defense mechanism, like the last time she had almost been killed. "Don't bother asking yourself why you look the way you do, there's no way to change it." Aeris turned around (performing it rather awkwardly as she wasn't used to walking on four legs) and found herself face to face (or face to legs given the difference in height) with Sephiroth.

If the difference between Sephiroth's appearance now and the way he normally looked weren't as stark as with Aeris, they were no less significant. Sephiroth was no longer dressed in his military outfit, instead he had on a simple black t-shirt and black sweatpants. Aeris' eyes were hopelessly drawn to Sephiroth's right hand, since Sephiroth didn't have his gloves on the "S" tattooed present on the back of his hand was all too obvious. As if noticing where Aeris was looking (not a hard feat considering her lupine body structure) he whipped his wrist around to hide that mark from view.

"You could have been 'A'; your mother was 'I', you know." No other words were needed temporarily, both Aeris and Sephiroth had already had this discussion. However odd it was, Sephiroth knew more about the two people who had been Aeris' real parents then Aeris did. Desperately seeking something besides Sephiroth's branding to focus on, Aeris quickly hit on her own problem. "Where are we?"

It wasn't telepathy the way Alex was able to communicate while in wolf form, because Aeris could hear her words reverberate in her own ears. It was as if somehow she was still able to speak in her normal voice regardless of what shape she was in. Sephiroth looked left and right as if there was any possible break in the giant swirling blackness which surrounded them. "We're in the Lifestream." Aeris probably displayed fear in one of the countless ways that made wolf body language so much more intricate and well defined than its human equivalent.

That had been one of those things Alex was suppose to teach her to control now that she could finally shift just by thinking about it. Not that it mattered in this situation, Sephiroth might practice body language that said nothing but he was a master of reading it. "We aren't dead. We're just literally in the Lifestream." Aeris relaxed visibly. "So what are we doing here?"

Sephiroth shrugged and sat down so that he could bring his eyes level with Aeris'. "Nothing in particular. It's the same thing I've been doing for the past, must be around 24 to 48 hours now. My internal clock is normally very accurate but something about this place distorts it. I've mostly been talking with the planet, if you can call a one sided conversation 'talking'."

"The others are going to be worried about us." Sephiroth shrugged and for one of the few times in his life, there was a sense of helplessness about him. "We'll get out when we get out. The Lifestream can't stand having actual bodies in it, so sooner or later we'll be kicked out." "A lot of good that will do us if we get kicked out like you were before."

Sephiroth shook his head sadly and looked down at the ground. "That was a mistake. The Lifestream is lower then it should be, so I got kicked out ahead of time. When you saw us fall in North Crater, Jenova somehow rescued Strife but I went into the Lifestream itself. The huge mako crystal you found around me works like a chrysalis does on a caterpillar, I will be able to break it when I am ready to leave." Aeris felt fear in her heart for a moment. "When will that be, Sephiroth? Meteor is in the sky, we need your help if we're going to think of any way to defeat Jenova!"

Sephiroth clenched both his hands into fists, and the black mark on his right hand was once again blatantly obvious. "That is exactly the point! I was useless against Jenova no matter how good a leader I was! That's why I'm here." Sephiroth's fist slowly unfurled as he looked out into the darkness. "Like I said, I've been having a conversation with the Planet. Or to be more exact, I've been watching. The Lifestream stores souls, and also stores the history of souls, even souls that aren't in it at the moment." The significance of what Sephiroth said hit Aeris instantly. "You've been looking over your own life."

Sephiroth laughed self-consciously, that was a new action for him as well. "I tried to. After a while it gets too painful to keep going. Watching all the different ways your own life can turn, all the different people you can kill and do worse things to." "So you stopped?" Sephiroth waved the question aside. "No, I knew the answer was in here somewhere, but I needed to look at something less painful. So I started to look at all the different lives of James and Mirri." Sephiroth began to laugh again, a sound born more of frustration then anything else.

"Most people have different destinies, like light refracted through a prism to make a rainbow. No person is by nature ever meant to be with someone else, we can choose our own path in the world. Destiny can be anything, people you love in one life can be people you kill in another. Except for James and Mirri. Watch." As Sephiroth spoke, the blackness seemed to shimmer. In its place, images began to play themselves out, accompanied by what Aeris spontaneously dubbed "Astral Subtitles".

"Little Zeek, you got big, I mean old, but, in a good way!" Sephiroth waved his hand and the images and sounds vanished into the blackness. Sephiroth turned his attention from where the images had been to looking at Aeris. "They're all like that. I can't say that James and Mirri are being controlled by destiny, it's more like they can control destiny. James and Mirri manipulate destiny whenever they show up, they always find a way to each other. They're like magnets, they attract, each other at every turn, and nothing that tries to get between them matters. Just watch them..."

"Kill them all, don't let any escape from this island. Dye with crimson the white clothes of all warriors with silver weapons. Dye with vermilion all the black clothes of all the warriors with iron weapons. Dye with red the color of their own blood all the clothes of our enemies. Kill all the enemies you see! Kill every single one!" "As you wish, my master."

"That's James?" "That's James." "Hard to tell." "Grow up, have your father and oldest brother killed while your being held hostage, get released, have to kill your younger brother because he fights for the people who held you hostage and killed the rest of your family, it would drive anyone loopy. James is even worse because he doesn't take well to seeing those he cares about in pain regardless of how well he resists attacks directed against himself."

"Is that your smallest needle? I DID IT I TOOK THE LINBURG BABY, I AM JOSEPH MENGELA!"

"Okay, he doesn't have a high pain tolerance, but he bounces back from it quickly."

"It's not going to be an orgy, it's a toga party." "Honestly, you're 21 years old, and tomorrow you're going to wrap yourself up in a bedsheet and pour grain alcohol all over your head. It's cute but I think I'll pass this time." "You want me to go alone?" "Baby, I'd prefer you didn't go at all." "It's a fraternity party, I'm in the fraternity, how can I miss it?" "I'll write you a note, I'll say you're too well to attend."

"This one depicts what our lives would be like if we were Turks." "How so?" "We spend all day getting drunk and figuring out how to screw with the system."

"I'll always be there to protect my Misaki!"

"Notice that at this point she has to take the gun from him." "I saw.'

"To the everlasting glory of the infantry."

"James is doing that?" "Yeah, he has a bad habit of being like a diamond, the more pressure you put on him the better he comes out."

"It had none of the normal connotations of 'women attacked in an alley' it was more like 'lioness beset upon by hyenas.'"

"Not much of a wizard if he grew your hair back all tangled like that."

"Permission to leave the ship Sir." "Why" "I want to give the Covenant back their bomb." "Granted" "You realize this is crazy right?" "Yes." "Unluckily for both of us, I like crazy."

"Miss me?" "Not at this range."

"Sir, you know Angua, she's not the type to stand around screaming and doing nothing. She makes other people do that."

"This world is made, OF LOVE & PEACE!"

"I ran out of gas! I had a flat tire! I didn't have enough money for cab fare. My tux didn't come back from the cleaners! An old friend came in from out of town! Someone stole my car! There was an earthquake! A terrible flood! Locusts! It wasn't my fault I swear to god!"

"I am a leaf on the wind, watch how I soar."

"There's someone I have to protect, and it's not a burden someone forced on me. It's a decision I made for myself and I take full responsibility any time I fire a round. But he's the reason I squeeze the trigger. And I won't ever hesitate to do it till the day he accomplishes his goal.

"Well, our first meeting was a little awkward... You seemed to have trouble forming complete sentences. But, then again, so do most of my citizens."

"Are they all..." "Yes, they're all like that. Do you know why?" Sephiroth stood up as he made that announcement and Aeris shook her head (a gesture slightly more difficult than normal). A strange kind of madness played in Sephiroth's eyes as he spoke. "Because, Aeris, I think I've finally found what it is. Love is about hurting someone till you heal them."

"What do you mean?" Sephiroth immediately sat down again, and put his hands on Aeris' shoulders (as such they were) as he spoke." "That's why James and Mirri keep finding each other. James is never afraid to get hurt. I distinctly remember telling him the following right before we hooked up with Mirri, when he wouldn't stop calling me 'Seph' and I had to train him to only do it behind my back. Ahem... "Listen I don't suffer fools well and in case you can't tell right now your acting like a fool and I'm having trouble suffering it. So stop, stop before you have to write a book called 'help General Sephiroth is choking me to death: the James Firecat Story.'; but he just looked at me with that painfully optimistic smile and didn't say a word, and somehow my gloved hands didn't go round his neck. Unlike me, however, Mirri isn't afraid to hurt him. But, this hurts Aeris, don't try to tell me it doesn't." Sephiroth drew himself as far forward as he could, his eyes would practically been touching Aeris' except that her muzzle kept a modicum of distance apart. "It hurts Sephiroth." "It hurts Aeris. It hurts to be this vulnerable. To be this human." "We can't go back, can we?"

"No." "Then we can only go forward, or stay where we are." "As a commanding officer, I once told my men something when we were under attack. We were pinned down, and slowly being picked off. I told them that we could either die were we lay, or we could get up, keep going and die up there. I planned to die up there then, and my mind hasn't changed since!"

"We have to go forward." "You aren't afraid?" "Aren't you Sephiroth? Aren't you afraid of me?" "Me, afraid of you? Aren't you afraid of me?" "Never mind, Sephiroth." "Yes we have to keep going forward." "Here, like this? While I look… like this?" Sephiroth quirked an eyebrow "Perhaps we should agree on a definition of 'going forward'". If Aeris hadn't been covered in fur, she would have been crimson.

---

The green surface bubbled the moment Vincent dipped the empty jug into it suspend by a rope. He couldn't touch the Lifestream no matter what or risk that he too would be sucked into it. Slowly he lowered the jug completely below the surface, felt it fill and its weight increase, and then began to pull it out.

More then a little Lifestream splashed out as Vincent pulled it up, but that didn't matter. He had already found what he needed in Nibelhiem, and now he had Lifestream. That meant he just had to head to Midgar for the last two ingredients to the mixture. /What are you doing?\ Vincent kept pulling on the rope, and finally he had the jug in his hand. He sealed it, then pounded the top with his claw just to be sure..

Once he had managed to acquire his prize he returned his attention to Alex. "It's a gift for someone I know." /Garou used to carry silver blades for dealing with those of their rank who served Jenova, I take it you are preparing similar weaponry?\ Lifestream bullets? It was an interesting idea, of course, unlike mako, pure Lifestream couldn't be solidified. Still, bullets could be loaded with Lifestream to leak their contents after they hit something.

It wasn't a bad plan, just not Vincent's intended use for the jug. "Something along those lines." Even as Vincent spoke, the mako began to bubble again. Both of them looked at each other and wondered if once again the town of Mideel was about to be swamped with Lifestream. Before either could start running again, the Lifestream erupted.

Two bodies were propelled out of the Lifestream with incredible speed. The larger of the forms hit the ground with a "thud", and the smaller form hit the larger one with an "whumpf" and a muffled "ow". Even with their appearances slightly obscured by the neon green liquid, Vincent recognized them instantly. Both Sephiroth and Aeris took a moment to cough and retch out the last bits of Lifestream they had swallowed before they could fill their lungs with air.

Surprisingly, Aeris managed to form coherent words first. "Let's never do that again." Sephiroth spat out a bit more Lifestream as he managed to nod since he couldn't speak yet. Once he managed to clear his airway he turned to Vincent and Alex. "Nice to see you two, where is the rest of the squad?" /I have no idea alpha, the Ragabash, Glass Walker, Black Fury, and shapeshifter all vanished with their flying machine. Sephiroth spit out some more mako before replying.

"Damn, they're probably doing more damage to wherever they are then whatever the hell has been going on down here. One of you two call them back here so we can plan." "I'll take care of it, Sephiroth." Sephiroth waited until Vincent finished giving directions to whoever was on the other side of the cell phone he was using before he spoke. "Vincent, why did you use my name? That's the first time I've heard you use it." Vincent returned the cellphone to a wandering pocket in his cloak. "I've had something of a revelation." Still on the ground, Aeris smiled up at the other three. "I think we all have, more or less."

FN: For those of you who didn't get it in the Lifestream, Sephiroth was basically showing Aeris a whole bunch of clips from various books, video games, movies, ect, that include character who have what I consider to be a MxJish relationship. Also, at first Sephiroth and Aeris are commenting on them but then they just sit back and watch.

Also, Munchkining, with no disrespect towards Edward Elric and other short (gets tackled by enraged State Alchemist who much like Vern Troyer is extremely powerful regardless of size) people...

Reading my new book "The Munchkin's Guide to Power Gaming (which I need to stop reading certain subjects (like the ones on horror) at night) it ends with a test to see how Munchkiny or over powered your characters are. Let's take a look (from pages 108-109 and 8 and 9)

1 The City blows up how do the players regard this event?

C: A worthwhile investment of explosives.

(Shot of Sephiroth and Mirri wearing sunglasses as Midgar goes up in a mushroom cloud)

Sephiroth: Damn, what did you use?

Mirri: Rude's special recipe. He wouldn't give me any details.

2: What do the characters resemble?

C: God

Sephiroth: You know I'm only going to take so much of this joke?

3 What is your players' preferred backup weapons?

B Something that will drop an enraged rhino at 30 paces.

Vincent: (Holding smoking rifle over his shoulder in classic badass with a shotgun pose as he walks over dead Materia Keeper) That was fun. What's next?

4 The enemy is a Species-style genetically engineered alien hybrid killing machine. How do the players think of her?

C: A cute babe.

Alex: Damn, that's one fine bitch! I'd like to snuggle up to her on a cold night in April!

5 The Heroes are tortured by a master criminal. What do they do?

C: Laugh heroically, tear free, eat the guards and feed the master criminal into his own paper shredder.

Reno: Are you guys done stuffing Hojo into the photocopier? It's that time of year when I celebrate my small raise by mailing the president a photocopy of my arse.

Mirri: Reno since when did you swear with a Corel accent?

Reno: Well I started just to increase my pull concerning you, but then I found out that it's a bloody bit more satisfying then the bulloxed up way we go about it!

6 The city is targeted by orbital strategic defense platforms. How do the players react?

C Go out buy a pair of $50,000 shades and a deck chair and prepare to "catch some rays"

Sephiroth: It's the only way I'm ever going to get a tan.

Mirri: The sacrifices we make.

7 Swords, what do you carry?

C A two handed greatsword that can only be lifted by someone with your superhuman strength, doubles your skill and damage, is totally indestructible, and was bequeathed to you by a god for no good reason.

Sephiroth: And I shall say, if any of you try to use Masamune I'll bash your brains out with my bare hands, understood?

Zack: Yes sir!

8 Handguns: what's the bee's knees?

C A .50 caliber Desert Eagle with laser sighting, custom grip, extended barrel, autofire conversion and hand packed rounds.

Vincent: That's not all. Check this out, the laser sight can be diffused... (small red dot grows larger) and presto, instant night light!

Niro: You're a vampire, what do you need a nightlight for?

Vincent: It's not about if I need those things, its about if I have them.

9 An enemy is fleeing what do you shout?

C: Blam! Blam! Blam! Blam! Blam! Blam! Freeze! (Reloads) Blam! Blam! Blam! Blam! Blam! Blam!

Vincent: Hojo just wouldn't die, so I kept shooting him.

Sephiroth: Do I look like I need an explanation? Personally I'm so happy that he's dead that I could riverdance.

Mirri: Sir… you should never say that.

Sephiroth: Why?

Reno: (Enters with nightshade over his head) Did somebody say riverdance? (Jumps up on table and starts to riverdance)

Mirri: That's why.

Sephiroth: Ah.

10 What is your favorite character

B: Your veteran Soldier who, while crazy has some deep pathos at his core.

Sephiroth: How many of you people actually know the meaning of the word pathos? Who are you to say I'm crazy?

11 In regard to food what are you?

C Carnivore.

Alex: Raw red meat! Just give me a Vlakorados, I'll tear off the parts I really like and ride the rest home!

Reno: Check it out. It's my license to kill, maim, mutilate, damage, demolish, blow up, irradiate , fold, spindle, crash, torture, slaughter and burn. This sucker should me have me covered till Friday.


	30. Chapter 30

Twighlight Perfection

Chapter 30: Changes in latitudes changes in attitudes, nothing remains quite the same.

"So now what?" Sephiroth nodded mentally in approval, James had asked the right question for once They were all back together again, but what were they supposed to do? Meteor was in the sky, and as Melkore had discovered (by accident but he wasn't about to say that) that North Crater was currently protected by some kind of invisible shield. So the clock was running, but they couldn't do anything to attack their main target.

"We are going to keep fighting. Since we can't hurt Jenova, we might as well make some headway against Shinra, at least they're more reasonable in the long run. If we can hit Shinra hard and fast enough, we might get them to make peace so we can focus on Jenova." "So we hit them in two places or in four?" Whatever Mirri lacked in discipline she made up for her natural "sneaky bastard" mindset.

Zack had made a better second in command in a large war, but Mirri excelled in this kind of small "war" based on getting the most out of limited forces. She had no limiting morals, and plenty of common sense. Of course that didn't keep Sephiroth from shooting Mirri a censuring glance, just because she could put facts together that perfectly didn't mean she should expect others to.

Sephiroth took a moment to clear his throat before he spoke. "As I was about to say, a few things are obvious. If we're going to shock them into submission we need to split into groups. If we can hit two places at once it would be impressive, but if we can pull off three or four synchronized attacks, it should put some real fear into Shinra. Since I've been out of the loop recently, I'm more then willing to let anyone who has an idea suggest a target." Mirri calmly reached over and tapped Melkore on the shoulder.

"You said that they would have to shut a reactor off to get the Huge Materia. Why was there no power loss in Junon yet the Mako Cannon was loaded?" Melkore turned to look at Mirri and frowned at her with true loathing. "I suppose you already know the answer, that's the only reason you would ask a question like that." Mirri smiled innocently, about as innocently and about as convincingly as a cat who had just coughed up enough feathers to stuff a pillow.

"Well now that you mention it, I have had an idea, but not much chance to check it. While we were in Junon that first time, James found out that the water was being electrified. Shinra wouldn't be running a current through that water unless they had something to hide, so I wondered what it was. Now, I think Shinra has a second reactor in Junon, an underwater reactor. We know that Shinra has been using Junon as an army base, they almost might be using it for a naval one, at least for subs.

They could be built, commissioned, and put into use without anyone knowing about them. So, with that in mind, this underwater reactor is probably used for military purposes, it most likely can be switched over to civilian use. Right now, they're probably trying to get the Huge Materia out of that reactor, and I'm going to stop them."

"You realize that could be wrong, and there might not be a second reactor?" Mirri shrugged and flexed her hands, like a tigress stretching her paws. "Then I'll just go raise some more hell in the Junon base before I pull out. Either way, Junon makes for a good target, Aeris you want to come?"

Aeris gave a timid nod and Mirri went on only pausing to lean back in satisfaction. "Great, I'll be able to see how much you've managed to learn from informal training with Sephiroth and Alex, if it isn't enough, I'll chip in." Mirri went from sitting relaxed on the floor of the Valar's meeting room to lying spread across the floor (James got up to make more room for her) to signify that she was removed from the conversation. At least she did after giving one last piece of advice. "And Melkore, don't even think about it."

With that, Mirri finished leaning back, she was done talking, the rest of the world could get bent. "The Nibelheim reactor." Sephiroth said it more bitterly then he had intended, but there was no way to keep bitterness out of his voice. "It doesn't really do much, I saw it in that report before I left for it five years ago.

Shinra probably wouldn't mind killing the plant to get its Huge Materia. I'm going to stop them." "Defending a Caern that was never your own from the Weave, quite honorable, I'll join you." Alex was in human form, because if he had been in lupine form he would have been laying down and he wanted his body language to show full attention for the meeting.

Melkore unstrapped his guitar and put it on the table pointing it at a ninth person who wasn't present. "Shinra just MIGHT be stupid enough to try and get the Huge Materia out of Rocket Town. But if they're going to use my town's power source as fodder for my weapon, then I will personally use them for weapons testing!" A pair of bright red eyes were willing to add their power to Melkore's blue ones. "Sounds like fun, I'll come, too!"

The two remaining members looked across the table at each other. "Then we're working together." "We need a target." Surprisingly, as Vincent and Niro were examining their partners, Sephiroth had the answer. "You two go to Midgar, and prep for the next phase of the assault. I trust black opps and infiltration shouldn't have much problem getting inside a city. Once you're in, do whatever you want so long as it spreads some chaos. If you still can't think of something, just blow up another reactor." Vincent and Niro both smiled grimly.

------------------------------

"Ah, Junon, the more of this town that we destroy the better." "Are you sure we don't need to worry about stealth more?" As if in response to Aeris' words Mirri only straightened up and spoke in a louder voice. "Aeris, Aeris, Aeris. You still believe that everyone in the world has a soul... Human beings are neither born with a soul, nor are they universally handed out for free. A soul is something you cry, sweat, and bleed for. You get one only on the day you can stand in the middle of the crowd and declare that you are nothing more or less than you. You will not be pushed, filed, indexed, stamped, briefed, debriefed or numbered, your life is your own. There's no universal way to gain a soul, but you can be sure there are ways to keep people from getting them. In places like here and Midgar, you find souls about as often as you find morals, watch."

Mirri stopped walking and stood perfectly still before yelling out her next words at the top of her lungs. "DON'T YOU JUST LOVE THE WAY MAKO REACTORS EXPLODE? WAY MORE ROMANTIC THEN A SUNSET!" She stopped, took a moment to look both ways and started walking again and speaking in a normal tone of voice to a flabbergasted Aeris.

"Now I just got the attention of, maybe, five people. And all five of them looked because, like Melkore, they thought that we were going to start having intercourse with each other. Everyone else doesn't care. Living in these huge cities is dehumanizing, and working for Shinra is doubly so. At some point most people just give themselves up, and knuckle under.

They become part of the system they work for, they turn into cogs of the machine. Those are the kinds of people who live in this city Aeris. They're the Paroles living off the BLS, the silent, as in dumb, as in stupid, majority. They're not even outer members of the party, the savages actually allow their women to wear revealing clothing and call each other something other than 'Comrade' can you believe it? There's no reason to be afraid of what they'll do to us, they can see us, but they can't understand us so they try to ignore us."

Mirri turned around and found (as she partly expected) that Aeris was lagging behind her. She was gaping at Mirri unable to make words, so Mirri would have to speak for her. She put on her best sing song "damsel in distress" voice and even swayed whimsically. "Oh, how could you ever say something so cruel?" She then deepened her own voice to achieve one appropriate for an over dramatic villain, and moved her right hand around her cheek as if twirling a nonexistent mustache. "Oh yes! You see, Shinra has already done most of the work, for they have made machines of men, and now my dear lady, I will break machines!"

Once again Mirri swayed her voice become high pitched and piteous. "Such heartless cruelty! It makes you no better then those we fight!" Mirri stabilized herself at once, and deepened her voice to her "evil" persona. "You are wrong my dear lady, it makes us worse! For we willingly lower ourselves, and seek to make ourselves even lower!"

Mirri returned to her more relaxed stance and spoke in her normal tone of voice. "Whoever wins, wins, that's what matters most and it will become evident if you look at history. Melkore wasn't able to drop us inside the city, but we aren't going to use stealth because there's no point. We're going to walk into a Shinra base and we'll kill anyone who gets in our way. Of course I use 'we' loosely because I can never be sure when you're going to have a sudden attack of dramatic heroism and start to feel sympathy for the people who are trying to kill you!"

Mirri stopped in mid motion, just stopped, it was decidedly unnatural feat to witness, apparently the 0 to 100 acceleration worked in reverse as well. After stopping in mid tirade, she stepped back, stepped forward, and ran a hand down the streak of white that split her hair. "Excuse me, you have to suit your message to your audience, and I'm doing the right thing in the wrong way which is just as inappropriate as doing the wrong thing the right way."

Aeris felt her eyes widen in surprise as she quickly searched her memory to see if she could remember any other times that Mirri had admitted to being at fault, she came up totally blank. "Let's go find a restaurant and talk." Finally Aeris managed to get words out through her surprise. "What about the mission?"

Mirri twisted into a perfect 90 degree turn pointing straight into the commercial section (such as it was) of Junon. She flashed Aeris a smile with the side of her face that Aeris could see at that moment. "Bugger the mission. Like James says, 'if you're not having fun, it isn't worth doing.' Come on, let's be about it." Aeris suddenly discovered what it's like to be a kitten helplessly lifted by it's mother's jaws that held it by its neck in a painless, but powerful grip as the mother carried the kitten to the litterbox.

------------------------------

Going up the Nibelheim mountains on foot (or paw) was slow work. Not necessarily hard work, but slow work. Alex was taking his time about it to balance out the fact that Sephiroth wasn't able to leap impossible distances straight up. Sephiroth climbed slowly, mapping out the mountain in his mind and blasting handholds where there were none available.

/Correct me if I'm wrong, but it would appear that humans are coming into season.\ Sephiroth clenched his teeth closed, and wished that like Alex he could mentally project his voice. The only good thing about not being able to was the fact that you didn't say things before you had time to clearly think them out. That was a very good thing when dealing with Alex, because in certain situations, you had to phrase your responses very carefully.

Or to be more exact it took you a while to get over your own shock. "Why do you say that?" Sephiroth's probing fingers detected another hand hold and he quickly progressed up to it, before starting to search for another one even higher up. Alex was somewhere up above Sephiroth looking down, Sephiroth could only get a very vague feeling for where the lycanthrope was from his mental voice.

/Because everywhere in the pack that I look I see its members looking at each other and suddenly discovering that the parts fit. Of course knowing Black Furies, she probably won't get with cubs until she's killed off all the possible menaces to them.\ You couldn't teach James military discipline, you couldn't teach Alex human ideas concerning what was "right" by dictum of society. With the quick seizing of another handhold, Sephiroth launched himself skyward, barely catching the ledge Alex was occupying.

"Alex, humans aren't like other animals, we don't have seasons." Alex's lupine face wasn't particularly expressive, but his mental voice made the smirk quite clear. /I know, Vincent explained it all to me in detail. Rather than say you don't have seasons, I think it would be more appropriate to say that you're in season every full cycle of the moon. I'd say the group has been together about that long. Knowing that Children of Gaia are not nearly as hard to mate with as Black Furies, I would expect cubs in... nine cycles of the moon for you humans?\ With a mental chuckle, Alex vaulted another couple dozen yards.

Sephiroth momentarily wondered where he could get a silver knife as he began to reach for another handhold. Whatever the thing would cost, he knew it would be worth it in the long run.

------------------------------

The Valar put down at the edge of Rocket Town, and James and Melkore stepped out. Melkore needed only one glance at the rubble that was left of his house to become pissed off enough for killing people to seem like a wonderful idea. Granted, James pointed out with his traditional honestly (which Melkore was sure would take years (if not decades) off his lifespan)) that he had been the one who had taken the ceiling off the house.

Still everything else was Shinra, the shattered windows, the smashed door, the pile of rubble blocking said door, the way the house leaned to the side as if it was going to fall over at any moment. "TIMBER!" James' shrill cry broke through the air, and a moment later his announcement proved true. As if the house had been waiting just for Melkore to return to it, it breathed its last.

It leaned, toppled, and went from a badly damaged house to a pile of rubble. Melkore took one look at it, discovered that he couldn't even get the curses out of his mouth. In a final irony, there was one piece of the house that was still technically "standing", his workshop. The roof had been sliced off, the walls had broken free and collapsed, and the original first floor had been buried under it. The thing had fallen to the foundation of Melkore's house, and stood, alone, but it still "stood" as a monument to… whatever.

"Wow! I think my book is right where I left it!" James walked through the doorway (that was still standing, though none of the wall was) and made his way though the rubble. It didn't take him long at all find and hold up his treasure. A golden book with a bullet hole in either side of it. That just proved what had always been a theory of Melkore's, God had a very weird sense of humor, and probably did some hallucinogenic drugs.

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"You didn't tell him." Niro was surprised as he said those words, and it did show in his voice (slightly at least) as he spoke to Vincent. Vincent for his part spoke with less emotion then Niro usually did. That was very weird considering the vampire had been giddy as a school boy about going to Midgar. "What was there to gain from it?"

Niro checked his guns as Vincent did the same. If Niro was a smart person he would have broke the conversation off right then, but apparently he had caught James' curiosity, it was probably passed on by osmosis. "He's your fucking son, why didn't you tell Sephiroth?" Vincent gave Niro a glare that would have dissuaded most men, but Niro stared him down.

"He's your son. You should have told him, if I understand anything about how human culture and families work, I understand that." Vincent went from checking Casull to checking Quicksilver, but Niro waited him out, and finally Vincent answered.

"What's the point of telling him? I don't know the words to tell him, and it wouldn't help anything. What should I tell him? Tell him that I killed his mother? Tell him that it's my fault he never had a father or a family? There are things people weren't meant to know, and this is one of them. So long as he thinks, so long as he knows, that Hojo is his father, then he'll have a ready supply of rage to use against both Shinra and Jenova. I see no reason to alter things." Niro finally acquiesced and stepped back. "Fine then, it's your decision. Now let's go deal with a problem we can fight."

----

The dinner was small but that was fine for Mirri's purposes. Seated in a booth at the far end, she was quite sure of their relative privacy, and any one who tried to pay too much attention would make themselves quite visible. She had planned this conversation on the way to their current location, or at least her part of it. "Coal mining isn't the only business that Corel used to do." Aeris raised her eyebrows in surprise at Mirri's non sequitur.

"We also used to be known for metalsmithing, making steel and other metallic goods. There's a famous saying from that particular business which I think applies quite well now. 'Strike when the iron is hot.' It is neither 'strike while the iron is stone cold' nor 'let's heat the iron till it becomes a molten piece of slag' it's necessary to find a medium between them. So let's talk. I believe the last time we were passing through this city I asked you this question, what do you like in life, and what do you hate?"

Aeris shuddered at Mirri's mention to the last time she had asked her that question. Mirri had almost killed her by mistake (it was hard to tell if it had been hers or Mirri's) before she had asked her. It might have not been that long ago measured by days, but a lot had changed since then.

The idea of lycanthropy had gone from an abstract principle to a reality, not to mention other things. "I'd like to live in a world where wars like this one don't happen." Mirri ordered a glass of water, tilting her head to the side so that Aeris couldn't see her roll her eyes. When she returned her attention to Aeris she put on her best big sister voice.

"There's a slight problem with big, broad statements like that one. They can be translated in more then one way. For example, I could say that I like the same things you do. Because my dream world involves waking up to a chorus of servants singing my praises. Then in my official duties as empress of the universe, I raise taxes, kick ugly, lecherous, misogynistic, and/or, idiotic people into mud puddles. That should last me till noon and then I'll take the rest of the day off to either grab a quick nap, or possibly sleep with James because he's actually jumped through most of the hoops I set up for any man I might consider getting involved with.

Of course there would be no war because everyone would be too scared of me personally giving them and their families the hook to rebel. Somehow, I'm guessing that's not the vision of world unity which you have Aeris. Am I right?" Aeris managed not to choke on the sip of water she had taken as Mirri has started speaking, that was a good sign.

Aeris was, however, caught in mid swallow and coughed up some of the water she was drinking as she muttered a quick, "YES!" Mirri took a serene drink from her glass of water, it was actually pretty good, it must have been imported. "Which is why you have to remember that it's not your goals or your motives that matter, it's your actions. So whenever you pick up a weapon, you need to ask yourself what you plan to do with it. Who do you plan to hurt, how badly do you plan to hurt them, and why are you going to hurt them. Those questions and the six 'P's of combat are all you need to know to kick ass."

"Six 'P's?" Mirri took a long drink from her water to avoid having to give any answer other than a half obscured "I'll tell you later." Once Mirri had knocked back her water in one long gulp she got on with her question. "So Aeris, when you pick up your staff, who are you going to hurt, how badly are you going to hurt them, and why are you going to hurt them?

They're easy questions for me to answer. I'm going to hurt any one I feel like, as badly as I feel like, and I'll do it because I feel like it. Though something tells me the path of amoral sadism isn't for you. I'd suggest you use James' personal mantra every time he's about to go into combat. 'Who am I going to hurt?' The people that I'm fighting. 'How badly am I going to hurt them?' As badly as the situation demands and not a bit more or less. 'Why am I going to hurt them?' Because they're trying to hurt me!"

Aeris looked like she might finally have understood something that Mirri said for the first time. "Okay..." Mirri drummed her finger on the table in irritation, it was much easier to predict ambition then principles. One of them was scientific and logical, the other one wasn't. So you didn't have much choice but make doubly sure that someone with principles understood what they were getting into.

"Aeris, what are you going to do with that staff?" Aeris looked at the staff that she had leaned across her side of the booth, it had a strap around so she didn't have to carry it in her hands. "I need this staff, need to hurt people as well as heal with it." That was progress in Mirri's book. A shield without a sword was a very flimsy defense.

"Okay that's better. Now say it with a passion. Say it, and remember what Shinra has done to you. Sephiroth told me, so let's do a little recap shall we? Say it and remember that Shinra killed your father when all he ever did was try to help people. Say it and remember that they treated your mother like an animal. Say it and remember that they would have treated you like an animal if they had a chance."

Fear was once again dancing in Aeris eye's as he looked down at her staff as if it was a viper coiled and ready to strike. Mirri had been a firm belief that if you were going to stab someone, you should drive your blade in up to the hilt. "Say it and remember everything they did to Sephiroth."

That broke the chocobo's back and a couple of its other bones, Mirri had always considered herself a master at reading people, and now was no exception. As soon as she had said her last sentence, Aeris had finally stopped looking fearfully at the staff but turned and met Mirri's gaze. "Mirri, I'll never be as strong as you. But I promise you, I won't back down, I won't sit this one out."

Mirri chuckled as she signaled a waiter and pointed to her empty glass of water. Once the waiter had departed to get another one, she returned her attention to Aeris. "This world is not decided by who has more strength, what matters is how you use the strength you have. 'Give me a large enough lever and I will move the world!' Cats have their muscles arranged in such a manor that they can defeat much more 'powerful' by which I mean larger, animals and so to a certain extent, do wolves. Ready to hunt?" Aeris picked up her staff and strapped it across her back, no answer in words could have been more concrete.

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/How do we get across this/ Alex and Sephiroth shared a quick glance at each other as they studied the problem. "Well the good news is it probably means that Shinra hasn't been here either..." The catwalk that Sephiroth had sliced apart five years ago was still out. It was the only way to go further into the reactor, and so one way or another they had to get across it. "Think we can jump it going out?"

It wasn't that far a fall from the catwalk above to the part of the lower catwalk that was still attached, but... /Not sure, but we can worry about that then.\ Sephiroth stepped over the railing and Alex leapt over it.

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"Hi we're here for..." Mirri didn't bother to finish the sentence, she knocked the two guards heads' together and let them drop limp to the floor. If (and it was a big if) they had been looking at Mirri's eyes, they might have been realized that they possessed a mako glow and taken it as a warning. As it was, they hadn't so they didn't, and now they wouldn't be regaining consciousness for quite a while.

Mirri casually stepped over (and on) the two guards before walking straight through the front door of the military base. Two guards were in the corridor standing at attention. Poor saps, they had guns but unlike the two out front they weren't holstered, even if their holders weren't exactly ready for action. Before either man could use their weapon they both dropped dead, a salvo of blades embedded in their chests.

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As Mirri walked down that hallway Aeris followed behind, which was why she saw it first. Saw the door swing open and the guard rush out with his gun ready and trained on Mirri. Part of Aeris wanted shout out to Mirri and warn her, but she couldn't find the words.

So she acted, she didn't remember if it was something that Sephiroth had taught her, or something Alex had. Either way she dropped her staff as she suddenly felt power flow through her body and knew that she no longer needed that piece of wood. She had intended it to be a single well placed and simple blow to knock the gun off target. It didn't turn out that way however. Instead the blow struck the guard's neck, and with such force that it dropped him to the ground.

Before he hit the ground, several blades struck him in the chest, but the words that followed only confirmed what Aeris somehow already knew. "Well done Aeris that's what we call a popped cherry, your first confirmed kill of an enemy in combat. Those blades were safety shots, his windpipe is crushed like a tin can."

Looking down, at the dead body Aeris could see that Mirri was right. The man's throat had been mangled, all Mirri had done was speed his passing from the world. Aeris surly hadn't hit him that hard had she? Looking around she suddenly noticed that everything seemed much smaller, even Mirri. "Gaia, forgive me." She thought the words since she could no longer seem to get them out of her throat.

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"Hold it right there!" James practically radiated enjoyment at the situation. They had their foes "cold" as Mirri would say. Granted this was kind of odd considering she also used the expression "stay frosty" which meant "stay alert". So for some reason catching your foes cold meant the exact opposite of catching them frosty, but that was neither here nor there. Kind of like how a fat and slim chance were the same, except that there was a bell curve explanation for that...

"You touch my town's reactor, I'll shoot you full of holes!" The female Turk who had chased James through Icicle Village was with the group of SOLDIERS. She was currently looking at James as if she had seen a ghost, yet James was still wearing his hat. If James hadn't been wearing his hat, then maybe, (maybe) the freaked out looks he was getting would make sense.

Of course, the odds were somewhat uneven regardless of who had caught who by surprise. There were only James and Melkore of against a score of SOLDIERS and a Turk. "Who do you think you are?" Melkore stroked his guitar in a familiar manner, James had seen Mirri depict the "pumping" of a shotgun with those motions countless times. Granted it looked sort of absurd on a guitar, but still, it conveyed a similar meaning.

"My name is Dr. Melkore Morningstar, and unless you step away from that reactor switch, I'll kill you all!" The female Turk pulled out her pistol as she glared at the two of them. "How do you plan to do that?" Melkore tapped his guitar trustingly. "Simple, this thing has a MEGA BASS BOOST built into it, and I've just turned it on! If I start playing I'll literarily 'bring the house down', right on top of us! Of course it won't actually kill us, but I can tell you that James is gonna be the first one to get out, and you don't want to see a pissed off Firecat!"

Everyone flinched, particularly those SOLDIERS who had seen the bodies of their comrades lying in pieces and heard Hojo describe the monster that had done it. Elena looked down her gun's barrel for a moment, and then gave up. "Men let's pull out. A dangerous terrorist is threatening to kill himself, and we should take that threat seriously. We're here to get the Huge Materia, not to destroy the reactor, if we can't do one without the other then we won't do either, this reactor is too important to Shinra. Let's go."

The SOLDIERS holstered their weapons and walked out without looking back. Once they were all gone James burst with the enthusiasm he had been holding in for record (for him at least) amounts of time. "So, could you really destroy this place with your guitar? I mean, I've heard of death metal, but that would be really impressive!"

Melkore rubbed his hair self-consciously, something James had never seen him do before. "Actually, I was bluffing." Oh. As soon as Melkore admitted to his mistake however, a bright flash of insight struck him. "But that doesn't mean it's impossible! Let's head back to my workshop and get to work!"

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Finding the elevator had been trial and error, Mirri was willing to admit that, but from then on, things had gone off like a charm. Up to this point at least. "Hey Catwarrior, nice to see you, and you've brought a friend! Now remember, since the world's about to end it's the last chance for indulging in any repressed fantasies!"

Reno, nightstick in hand, cigarette dangling from his lips, and a wicked looking rifle strapped across his back, was overseeing the nearby proceedings. A group of Shinra guards was busily loading one of those Shinra subs Mirri had expected would exist down here. In fact, there were two of them in the sub dock, and the larger one was being loaded. Mirri took one look at Reno and paused to carefully plan her response.

"When did you start smoking again? At least after you quit you were only offensive to four senses."

"I quit when the 'immortal' General died. Well, he's back and trying to kill me, and the world's about to end. I don't see how a few more nails're gonna shut my coffin any sooner. Now, about those fantasies..?"

"Come to think of it, I always wondered what your liver looked like after all the abuse you've given it. Care to find out?" Reno scratched his chin in irritation, and smiled at Mirri as he tilted his glasses forward so that they would cover his eyes. "You should have been a Turk, you're great when it comes to playing the game. But you have just one small problem, you could never understand the value of homefield advantage."

Reno reached over and flipped a switch by the loading docks. Before Mirri could react, she suddenly found herself pulled from the ground and a moment later with bone jarring force she slammed into something hard and metallic. "It's an electromagnet, we normally use it for loading the subs and construction, but how does this use grab you?"

Mirri would have killed Reno right then and their with her blades, but they were currently in the grip of the electromagnet. Nor could Mirri move the rest of her body; because of the blades she was wearing and her second skeleton she was unable to move.

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Aeris felt a cold hand squeeze her heart, it was just her and Reno now, and she didn't have her staff. Things had come full circle to that time back in the church, and there was no one left to rescue her but herself. She had come too far to go back however, she didn't need her staff, she was Garou. Reno seemed too pleased with his defeat of Mirri to even think that Aeris was a threat, now was the time. There was no backing down, no problem grasping the strands of silver light, nor was there anything unconscious about the act. She grabbed hold of it and transformed.

Reno had seen a lot of things in his days on the beat. He had seen explosives go off so close to him that it was only by sheer luck (not to mention body armor and enhancements) that he hadn't been crippled for life, there had been times when bullets whizzed by him so closely that they could have styled his hair. Thus he wasn't quite as freaked out about the prospect of normal looking girl suddenly transforming into giant lupine killing machine as most people would have been.

So it was with the utmost aplomb that he spun around, bent himself double and took of like a shot. Still, against something that was built to be quadrupedal, only Reno's past saved him from becoming so much wolf chow (that was possibly an overstatement on both counts) as Aeris barreled down on him. He dropped his nightstick, and ran for all he was worth, a formula he had used countless times before. Bars the world over had seen Reno ducking, twisting, and turning to avoid stronger and more sober foes. This was no exception, Reno had always known what was the better part of valor, and anyone who had been watching would have been quite amused.

In fact, Mirri, even from her annoyingly helpless position, found the situation immensely gratifying. Reno barely managed to avoid the flashing talons and fangs of the monster which pursued him. With the joy of a condemned man sneaking past Saint Peter, he jumped onto the loaded submarine, got a good firm grip, and slammed down the sub's hatch closed his last words echoing out behind him. "DAMMIT, DOESN'T ANYBODY NORMAL WORK WITH SEPHIROTH?"

A few seconds later the sub was under way, and Aeris realized that even in Crinos form there was nothing she could do about it. So instead she calmly padded over on all fours to the lever Reno had used, and easily used her muzzle to pull it back to it's original position. Mirri had made considerably more graceful landings, but just like all the other ones she had made she was able to walk away from it.

She stood up, brushed herself off, fired her blades to get them out of her gloves. "Good going wolf girl, I'd say nine out of ten, you missed a point for not relieving Reno of the seat of his pants." Aeris was busily shifting back to a fully human form (thankfully Alex had long since performed the right of dedication on the clothing so that it would melt into her body when she shifted and return when she needed it) and cast a half irritated, half sheepish look at Mirri. "Your approval shames me. You're making me feel inhuman"

Mirri did a few quick tests to make sure her entire body was still intact and not drastically damaged, as she suspected it was just fine. Then she turned her attention to Aeris. "Sorry, I'm used to working with James, and the ship of his inhumanity set sail long before I met him. You can correct me any time I push you too hard. Now let's go get Reno!" Aeris looked out at the situation hopelessly as the sub Reno was on vanished from view beneath the waves. "But he's already got away..." Mirri was rushing past Aeris before she cold elaborate on her comments.

"In a chocobo's eye he has! I took a course on all things maritime while I was becoming a SOLDIER. Shinra hasn't upgraded much since the war, that's a Mark III Sea Lion submersible. It was one of the most impressive subs we had because it's so highly automated. Between the two of us we should be able to handle it well enough."

Aeris followed after Mirri catching her breath as best she could. "So Mirri, what didn't you study when you were becoming a SOLDIER?" "Theology." "I didn't..." "I know, like I said I'm used to working with James."

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"Tseng." The former Turk looked at the former General and shrugged. "You were expecting Hojo?" With that, Jenova's newest pawn turned his attention away from Sephiroth and Alex and back to the empty tank he stood before. "Hojo wouldn't come this far Sephiroth, the man is a fool. He spends too much time filling his ears with his own praises to hear anything else. Jenova has her uses for him because he is a very well positioned fool, but soon power in this world will mean nothing.

This world will be smashed to dust by that huge rock in the sky, and then Jenova will take those of us who believe in her to another world, which we'll go about destroying sooner or later as well... and so on to infinity. Like you always suggested, Strife is really nothing but a piece to be moved about by her will, you are capable of so much more. You are, after all, the son of Jenova."

Sephiroth got a good firm grip on Alex, who was more then ready to rip Tseng limb from limb. "No, I'll deal with him." /Then kill him now Silver Fang, there is nothing to be gained from exchanging words with those who belong to the Wyrm!\ Sephiroth kept a firm grip and said only one more word to Alex "no" and said it with such force that he would have expected it to hold back the tide, let alone one enraged Garou.

Alex relented and Sephiroth turned his attention to Tseng. "I'm not Jenova's son." Tseng shrugged again and tapped on the tank creating a small ringing sound in the room. "Technicalities are technicalities. Do you even know he name of your mother? Has your father ever told you?" Sephiroth a felt a very strong desire to loosen his grip on Alex's neck. "I know everything I need to know about myself. Evidently you don't or you wouldn't have risked my wrath.

Tseng seemed more amused then frightened. "You say you exist only to kill, then you would do Jenova proud. You come from a long line of killers Sephiroth. Just ask your father as the crimson glory of death flows through his body. He was a fool to even try to save your mother, because all you Valentines can bring to this world is death. It's folly to ask a tiger to try and heal when he has only been taught the art of slaughter. You should embrace those who would respect you for your strength rather then hate you for it." 

"Your words are meaningless. Fighting the infection in my veins makes me far stronger than you could ever hope the bitch queen to make you. I don't draw my significance from mindless slaughter, that's Mirri's game, and I'd rather let her play it. Nonetheless, I'm starting to get sick of the sound of your voice. Either do something or shut up."

Tseng smirked, drew his katana, and leapt. The ring of steel on steel echoed through the reactor for the second time in five years as Sephiroth parried Tseng's wild strike and struck him with an open palm, sending him flying across the reactor. Tseng landed with an audible "thud", rolling to his feet just in time to meet Sephiroth's leaping slash, although he was still jarred by the force of the impact. He leapt over Sephiroth's head, aiming a thrust at the General's back. Sephiroth didn't bother parrying, he just spun into a crouch and brought his sword across diagonally, then snapped his arms to his side and thrust, impaling a pipe that Tseng had just somersaulted over. As he straightened up, he spotted Tseng dashing along the catwalk, trying to reach the core. Sephiroth gauged the distance and launched himself across the gap, stabbing Masamune deep into the wall just in front of Tseng, who backpedaled momentarily, then, realizing his opportunity, brought his sword down viciously, if a moment too late.

Sephiroth executed a draw cut that was extraordinary for the same reason that it was unorthodox: he slashed through the wall, meeting Tseng's blade on its way down and sending it and its wielder flying in different directions.

Sephiroth sprinted to Tseng's crumpled form and raised Masamune, but before he could separate his opponent's head from his shoulders, Tseng pressed his hands to the wall, then seemed to compress, sinking into the wall. Before his face melted into the steel, he snarled, "Jenova's gifts have only begun to manifest! If you will not serve her, she will make me stronger than you ever were!" As his words trailed away, Sephiroth and Alex were left in an empty reactor. Sephiroth, either frustrated or going for a long shot (even he wasn't sure), drove Masamune to the hilt into the wall that Tseng had passed through.

/Alpha, I think you should see this…\ Alex's mental 'voice' broke through Sephiroth's thoughts.

"Hmm?" Alex gestured to small piece of paper stuck with a very familiar substance to the glass tank. "Dear Sephiroth: The first rule of combat is that if you can cheat, do it. I took the precaution of placing enough plastic explosives at various key structural sections of the reactor to reduce it to rubble when they go off. You'll have about ten seconds by the time you finish reading this. Have a pleasant afterlife, for as long as it lasts. --- Tseng. PS: Nine seconds."

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"Praying Mantis, this is Black Window, you have exactly five seconds to turn off your engines and pump the water out of your ballast tanks. Failure to comply will result in your instant termination." Reno was not piloting the sub, he was just standing around. However, at that announcement he grabbed the pilot's shoulder in a gesture of fake camaraderie. "I'd suggest we do what the lady says."

The SOLDIER looked up in surprise. "But sir! The President told us to bring this huge materia back or die trying!" Reno devoutly wished he had his nightstick at that moment, but he had left it back in Junon. "First off don't call me "sir" damn it, I work for a living! Secondly, if you want to try dying be my guest. We should consider ourselves lucky that Catwarrior is even giving us a chance to surrender, usually she just kills.

Now, if you don't stop this sub, I'll kill you before Catwarrior has a chance to. Believe me, there's nothing heroic about dieing of a punctured lung, it's slow, and it's painful. So do any of you want to be heroes?" As Reno said those words he drew his rifle, and pointed it around the submarine speculatively. All of the men had heard the stories of what kind of spectacular havoc even a single Turk could wreak. The order was followed.

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Niro walked down the streets of Upper Midgar calmly. "It's set." A pool of shadows took the form of Vincent Valentine, face already smiling as he held up a small metal box. "All right then, let's light her up!" Vincent pressed the button.

The city rocked as the Shinra number 3 mako reactor went up in a pillar of flames. People instantly broke into a panic and raced this way and that, taking no notice of the two who knew where they were going. Or to be exact, Vincent knew where he was going, straight towards Shinra HQ. His attention of course was focused on a vehicle outside the tower rather then anyone inside it. "That's president Shinra's car."

The stretch limousine that was the very definition of opulence was at the moment defenseless. The squad of guards who had been there had left, and it left Niro and Vincent alone with it. Of course, attaching explosives to it would be pointless (because it would be swept for such with a fine toothed comb before Rufus got into it), and the windows were bulletproof. But the car was not protected against what was about to happen. "I've wanted to do this all my life."

Vincent pulled out Quicksilver, and got to work. "I can't believe you did that." "I thought about using my claw, but I always used my gun in my dreams." By the time the guards would return to the car the damage had be done. A horizontal line scratched in the chassis ran straight all along the left side of the car.

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Elsewhere in the world another reactor was about to explode. Sephiroth tossed the note aside not bothering to read the postscript. "Run." Alex didn't bother for further information, he turned and ran. With a sufficient running start from inside the reactor's main chamber (and a touch of Gnosis) he easily cleared the section where Sephiroth had damaged the catwalk. Another leap straight up and he was out even as the reactor went up in flames behind him.

Sephiroth followed suit, cleared the section were the catwalk was missing and grabbed onto the ladder. He shot up it with incredible speed and even that almost wasn't enough. He barely managed to jump from the reactor as a section of it plummeted towards where he had been standing a few moments ago. He got back up again and kept running, another piece of debris that was lodged between him and freedom was blown a apart by a bolt of lighting Sephiroth cast without even breaking his stride.

Then he was out, and even as the reactor vented flames after him he knew it had no chance to take his life. He hit the ground, harder this time, and rolled over to where Alex was lying equally prone. Apparently he had shifted the moment he had left the reactor to activate his regeneration. "You weren't surprised when he said Vincent was my father."

The sound of Alex gasping for breath was highly reminiscent of a canine (or lupine) painting in the heat of summer. "Yes, Silver Fang." "You knew ahead of time." "Yes, Silver Fang.' "Since when?" "Since Second Junon, Silver Fang." "Does Vincent know?" "Since Second Junon, Silver Fang." "We're going to have a long discussion next time I see him." "Of course, Silver Fang."

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"Have a fun walk back to Midgar!" Mirri waved to Reno as he stood on the beach outside Junon. Below in the submarine Aeris pushed two necessary buttons at the verbal signal. The torpedoes launched at close to point blank range against a stationary target. It did not take long at all till Reno's submarine was submerged in a much more permanent manor. "Oh and thanks for helping me load the Huge Materia Reno. Hate and stabbings!" With that Mirri delivered a kiss to the palm of her right hand, and slapped the air with it, which from the way it made Reno swoon for a moment was clearly just as good as a kiss to him.

Then Mirri pulled the hatch close and soon the sub's engines kicked in taking them out of sight as they dipped below the surface. The men who were with Reno looked at him oddly as he took the time to pump his arm in victory. "Hate and stabbing, she so digs me! The line between love and hate is paper thin, and even thinner with Catwarrior! Thank you huge giant rock in the sky, thank you giant all consuming war that's burning this world to ash! You've brought me that much closer to making a base camp at Catwarrior's feet and working my way up!"

Sadly those men with Reno did not have romantic attachments (assuming you could even say Reno had that) to the people who were trying to kill them and found themselves helplessly fixated on reality. "Sir, don't we now have to walk back to Midgar like she said?" Reno reached into his blue suit and pulled out a radio. "You sorry bastards have to. I'm calling in a helicopter for myself."

End chapter 30

OWAN: Okay, a bit late (as in VERY late), but I have a very good excuse. I'm in college. Between classes, my computer dieing so much I want to name it Hyatt, and various personal stuff, I've had little time to work on this. Hope you people are grateful.

FN: If you hadn't noticed yet I've decided to make Corel the "Britain" of FF7. This is reflected in Mirri's choice of media to cite when making her point to Aeris. For those of you who didn't notice it, The Prisoner, the Honor Harrington works by David Weber (okay David Weber may be American but the Harringtonverse has a clear pro-British slant) and 1984 by George Orwell. You may notice more along similar lines later. On the other side of the world, Vincent's actions are a reference to a commercial for Golden Eye Rogue Agent, except it was a plane exploding. Oh and the chapter was long enough as is, but here's a quick addition taking place (or at least set) at the end of chapter 22.

Aeris: I see dead people, (Looks into TV and at Vincent as he's sneaking out of room) and they're everywhere!

Sephiroth: (Cleaning nails with mini-Masamune) Another day another genocide.

Aeris: Cheerful aren't we?

Sephiroth: (Looks around room and then back at Aeris) Well now that you've had your emotional virginity raped away, how about we go kick some ass?

Aeris: No I'm going to angst till Hojo is about to do away my regular kind of virginity then I'll go berserk and do as much good as harm, then I'll be all badass out of combat and kick Melkore around for a bit, and maybe after a short shoujo-ai-ish interaction with Mirri I'll get my act together and we can finally connect emotionally.

Sephiroth: (Goes back to cleaning nails) Take your time.

(Shot of Reno watching them through crack in the wall)

Reno: Yes! Finally a slash pairing that I can spread around the office and be taken seriously!

Elena: What am I chop liver?

Reno: (Looks how beat up she is) Yes.

(Reno is tapped on shoulder, turns around and finds Mirri standing behind him)

Mirri: Gathering lilies for your grave Reno?

Reno: To answer that question let me say, RUN AWAY!

(Reno runs off so fast the notebook he was holding is left hanging in mid air)

I'd like to credit of it, but most of it goes to the people who made FMA Conquers' of Shamabala and one fan who wrote a delightful five minute plot summary of it, that includes Al and Ed saying Aeris and Sephiroth's lines up to "ready to kick some ass" and from there my mind ran with it. After all the expression "Well now that you've had your emotional virginity raped away, how about we go kick some ass?" is a perfect Anime expression it works just about any anime. Wolfwood could say it to Vash, Alucard could say it to Seras, the possibilities are endless. Oh, and points to whoever gets the double joke in Mirri's line.

FN2: After an intensive match of Rock Paper Scissors over IM (done through a third party) my editor bested me and so the following scene became deleted (to wind up right here) rather than actually happening since he said it was too unbelievable even for this fic.

OWAN2: And if you think I'm spell-checking this, you're out of your nip-fogged mind.

Faced with something new, Reno did what he always did, he turned to that trusty friend he kept well strapped to his hip. Not a 9MM pistol he had that in a holster attached to his ankle, it was a bottle of liquor that he found solace in. His current one had been specialy prepared by himself since no one else seeemed to be able to grasp the concept that 100 proof meant that it was only 50 liquor. What the other 50 was he didn't know, and didn't really care.

He took a very deep swig of it and faced the monstrosity charging towards him with shoulders straight. He reached into a pocket, and pulled out a zippo. He flicked it to life, and then exhaled. A monsterous blast of flame left his lips straight for Aeris, who's claws suddenly started leaving deep gouges in the floor in a vain attempt to stop.

Reno closed the lighter, and spoke his breath still wafting of what was probably was 140 proof liquor with 60 karoseen thrown in for fun. "I was saving this for Sephiroth first, but opprotunity knocks only so often. After all Hojo said that barring silver bullets flame was the next best option to use aginst werewolves. Granted I hear it also works well on vampires, so its a two-fer! Mircat you won't go spoiling my little secret will you? I mean you're going to be haning around here for quite a while."

Mirri from her vantage point could see something that Reno couldn't. "I won't, but if I was you I'd get a running start." Then the flames finally died away and Reno saw what conditon Aeris was in. Her fur was schorced black but, she was otherwise apperently unhurt. This Reno was slightly dumfounded at. "Dam! Even among the occult Sephiroth has all the freaks!" Aeris got her paws back under her and once more raced for Reno determined to proect her packmate. Reno for his part knew better than to waste good money after bad beer, turned and ran.


	31. Chapter 31

Chapter 31: The world ain't slowing down.

Mirri was indignant over the whole situation. "I can't believe you're sending James and not me." Sephiroth kept his distance from Mirri, she was in one of those moods were she could do a fine impression of a wet cat in a bag. She had practically hissed her last words. Of course the hiss as one generally thinks of it is paired with serpents, who used it as their normal mode of a communication, a cat's hiss on the other hand was a signal of war.

"Mirri, James is the only one I need in Midgar since Vincent and Niro are already there. I need you here." It was hard to tell if Mirri was more upset about being separated from James, or missing out on the sheer amount of mayhem she could have created in Midgar. "You need me here to do what exactly sir? Plan strategy? I think a blind man off in Rocket Town, or maybe even Rufus Shinra could guess your strategy at this point. You're shifting your forces into Midgar, and preparing to have us slam the Shinra HQ again, but this time with more support."

"I need you here to train Aeris with Alex while I plan on how to get us into Midgar." He could have just pulled rank, but then, Mirri knew where he slept. Which was why Sephiroth was so glad that he had thought of something ahead of time to offer her. Sephiroth made sure not to smile when Mirri silently nodded showing that she had taken to his bait like Reno to looting a recently closed bar.

Then Sephiroth turned to the topic of this conversation who had been silently watching it transpire. "James, we're dropping you a safe distance from Midgar. You need to get inside the city, and link up with Vincent and Niro, understand?" James nodded, and unlike Mirri he saluted (still with the left hand) at Sephiroth's orders. Before departing for their respective duties Mirri leaned over and gave James some sage advice. "Knock em dead, James."

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The stealthy secret (reconnaissance) agent Firecat approached the wall slowly creeping up on four legs. Though it close enough to midnight, James' impressive night vision was completely unnecessary. Midgar was the city that never slept, most likely because it kept shinning lights in the eyes of its own occupants. Even gates were lit up like neon signs.

Of course there was no one on this side of the wall, they were only on the other side. Still, James carefully crept up on the wall, though its opaque design limited the likelihood that anyone would be able to see him through it. He put one hand to the wall, and then he acted. One quick jump took him to the top of the supposedly impassible wall, and he paused for a moment after he "stuck his landing" as Mirri would say.

Of course lollygagging on top of the wall might not have been the best plan, but he didn't care. He even took a moment to pull out his wires and slices up some of barb wire that encircled the top of the wall. In retrospect despite how enjoyable this was due to the inherent symbolism of the action, it was not conducive to the living of a long life.

This was made evident by the fact that suddenly from all sides he was assailed by even brighter lights and piercingly loud noises. James could only guess that it was caused by some kind of break in the wire, which on second though may have also had an electric current running through it so that a break in the current would trigger alarms, though even he found this knowledge a touch on the useless side in this situation.

James quickly slid from his position on the wall to hit the ground running because the guards had already started firing in his general direction. Sadly after that first tactical mistake of slicing up the wire, James committed a second, he didn't know the territory. This was particularly unforgivable because he was a reconnaissance officer, and knowing the territory was his job.

Either way as he ran down the streets of Upper Midgar he realized something: there were no convenient alleys to duck into. Nor were there any sewer systems, because sewage was pumped downwards into Lower Midgar. Deprived of the two universal constants he had so thought defined Midgar, he fell back on his standard plan, improvise something. In this case, James was able to find refuge in one of his traditional hiding spots, a place where no one else would look for him.

He managed to compact his entire body enough to comfortably fit inside a mostly empty trashcan, and simply waited. The sound of the guards' footsteps came closer, and then grew farther away. Once James had difficulty hearing them at all, (which indicated quite a distance from him considering how sensitive his ears were) James pushed the lid off and got out of the trashcan. Another brilliant tactical move by James Firecat, and all he had to do was part with his nonexistent dignity in the process of executing it.

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Aeris sat in her "small" (which meant it was only designed for two people instead of four) room on the Valar and repeated to herself what she had become aware of while she was waiting for the Valar to arrive and pick them up along with the Huge Materia they now possessed from their submarine in the middle of the ocean. "My name is Aeris Gaste, I am a soldier." It hadn't shocked as much as it should have, to suddenly discover that she was something she had thought she always hated.

"I am a soldier in Gaia's army, but I am not a weapon." That was the linchpin of the whole thing she now realized. The difference between the two was not measurable by any means, it was too vast. "I am a soldier who will kill for peace, if I have to." There was no reason to deny that she had killed that guard, even if it had been subconsciously done, she had wanted to kill him. "I am a soldier, and that means I will not leave the battlefield except in victory or in death."

That was a condition which all of humanity would share with a meteor in the sky and Jenova gaining in power. "But that does not mean I will make corpses of everyone who stands against me." She was a soldier and that meant she was a thinking breathing being first. "For those who stand against me out of ignorance or fear, I will break their arms..."

Both meanings of the phrase, weapons, and those made of bone. Both would impair someone from fighting against her, but neither of them would kill on their own. She was a Child of Gaia, killing was the exception, not the rule. "I am not a weapon, I am a soldier and my body is my weapon, but I am a soldier. I understand objectives, I understand how to capture without obliterating, to incapacitate without killing."

She was powerful, and it was wonderful. She was powerful, and that meant that she didn't need to fight claw and jaw to win battles with ordinary human beings, or even SOLDIERS. She was powerful, and that meant that she didn't need to aim each blow as a killing one, her foes posed little threat to her. She was Garou, but that didn't make her like the WEAPONS. Her mind was not consumed with pain or rage to the point that she could not distinguish friend from foe.

There was no reason for that WEAPON to have attacked Mideel, but it did anyway. She didn't have to be afraid that she would end up like that WEAPON. "I am a soldier, and that means that at the end of the day, of the war, when I take off my uniform, I am still the same person I was when I first put it on." That one was the farthest from being true. To be fair the moment she had put on her "uniform", (a coating of reddish brown fur) she knew she wasn't the same person as before.

But any time she wanted, she could take off or put on that uniform, she was the one who controlled herself. There was no snarling feral beast sharing her mind with her, there was only herself. The WEAPONS had been mistakes, they were monsters, they had been desperate creations made by a desperate Gaia, but they were rendered obsolete even before they had been finished.

"I am a soldier, and that makes me infinitely more then a weapon." She repeated that last line again and then stood up. /Child of Gaia, are you ready?\ She opened the door and smiled at Alex and Mirri, smiling the way she used to, or as close as she would ever come to it. The only difference was that she knew that there were now sharp teeth backing up that smile, and she didn't truly mind that knowledge.

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Aeris and Alex were both blurs, one green one pink. Neither of them had any weapons on them, neither of them needed them. They had been training for most of the day now, but Alex and Aeris' regeneration was at least as good as Mirri's, so none of them had yet to be fully tired out by it. Of course, they had also had been swapping out now and again so that each of them got a chance to rest occasionally.

Alex was much more used to combat, but they were fighting as humans which gave Aeris an edge. Also they were trying not to kill each other, and that was something which Alex had some experience at, but wasn't a thing that Get of Fenris made a habit of doing.

Both of them danced back and forth after Aeris managed to dodge Alex's kick. She was a little too slow to evade the followup punch that sent her sprawling, but she rolled to her feet with little trouble. They circled each other, Aeris dodged another blow and drew close enough to land a blow between Alex's legs. The lycanthrope dropped to the floor, even regeneration could only do so much for some kinds of "wounds" regardless of what caused them.

On the ground Alex managed to get out coherent words much sooner then most men would have, although his words were as much snarled as spoken. "This body has so many obvious weaknesses. You could hardly strike me in such a manner if I was in my true form." It was a fair argument, wolves had their private parts located in a much more private place than humans or Cetra did. Alex then cast an extremely irritated glower at Mirri.

"Of course this does do something to explain why Black Furies always seemed to find converts among those who are born as Cetra rather then wolves. Not to mention why they go to such length to avoid fighting each other, their greatest technique doesn't work against themselves." Mirri glared back at Alex on the floor and turned to Aeris.

"He does have a point of course Aeris. The crotch kick is extremely effective, not to mention satisfying, but only so long as your foe is a human male, so it shouldn't be the only move you have. I prefer to use it as a finisher for informal combat against idiots. No matter how satisfying it is, you should learn to use moves that work as well on females or things with more exotic anatomy. As for you Alex, you need to be more aware of your body. Besides forgetting the 'obvious weakness', half of your punches looked like you thought you had claws. Aeris you can sit this one out, Alex: you and me."

No sooner had Aeris stood aside then a heavy hand came down on her shoulder. "I'd like to have a few words with you privately if you don't mind?" Aeris allowed Sephiroth to lead her a reasonable distance away from Mirri and Alex, and then he waited for a few moments till he heard something Aeris didn't. "Those two started fighting, so they'll be too busy to overhear us. I just wanted to talk with you alone because, I know just how you felt.

At first I thought it was hate, because hate was all I knew. It built my world, imprisoned me, taught me how to eat, how to drink, how to breath, I thought I'd die with all the hate in my veins. But then something happened, just as it happened to you. They took everything they could from me, everything but my life, and that was of diminishing value every day. And then I found something else to believe that not even Doctor Gaste, that no one else could have taught me. I found Golconda, the calm in the eye of the storm, and that just maybe our love for others is even stronger than our hate." 

Aeris had never expected to hear her current companion say those words in a thousand years. "Who are you and what have you done with Sephiroth?" The General took it in good stride however, amazingly good stride for him. "I see you've caught me. I'm really Zephiroth his more evil clone and I currently have Sephiroth tied up in his room with ordinary rope so that he'll easily be able to escape and come for me when I'm trying to have my way with you."

Aeris didn't have to wait long for the real Sephiroth to shine through. "Sorry, I'm just feeling slightly better than normal because I recently found something out that took several loads off my shoulders. I'm sure by now you've been able to understand my principles when it comes to destiny, faith, or any other means of divining the future?" Aeris had. Sephiroth had all the love for them that he did for Shinra. "I don't think they're worth a one-legged chocobo. But I do actually believe in the principle that genes breed true. You can see it in animals, and you can see it in humans, even if to a slightly lesser extent, which is why you're going to laugh when I tell this to you, my name isn't Sephiroth Hojo, it's Sephiroth Valentine!"

Aeris had no trouble understanding the simple logic or the implication behind it. After all, Vincent had told her about her similarities to Sephiroth's mother. "You mean?" Sephiroth's eyes were currently widened to a degree that Aeris usually associated with James. On Sephiroth it looked noticeably more maniacal. "Yes! Do you know what that means? I'm not going to turn into a psychopath who kills people for no reason! I'm going to kill people for money, it'll be my job, it always has been!"

Sephiroth suddenly snapped back to his normal persona. "Of course a certain someone is going to regret not telling me sooner." From the sound of his voice, whoever it was probably going to be able to publish a best seller companion to James' work "Help, General Sephiroth has torn off my leg and is beating me to death with it" and Aeris was glad it wasn't her.

"Oh, and Aeris, don't tell the others. Alex already knows, and Mirri would have a field day with the Freudian implications. Now, get back to training; it would make me terribly upset if you died, and you wouldn't want to do that would you?"

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Somewhere beneath the waters of the northern ocean, something stirred. It had traced the scar the length of the Planet, and now it knew what to do. There was wound that kept the scar from healing, another wound to the south. The WEAPON would destroy it with fire to cauterize the wound and finally seal it shut!

End chapter 31

FN: Yes usually short but don't worry that's just cause you got to build the tension. Which I suppose means that you should actually be worrying, well whatever. Ohh and this chapter would have been easier to write if V hadn't decided to get all metaphysicalpsychological and just finished his monologue.


	32. Chapter 32

Chapter 32 I went to the store to get more fire to start the war!

It had been three days since Vincent and Niro had found James. He of course had a thousand tales about his escapades while he had been roaming around Midgar alone. Vincent didn't believe half (to 75) of them, but he listened nonetheless because he was in a good mood. Lower Midgar was a vampire paradise, you couldn't swing Death Penalty around without hitting someone who no one else cared about and sunlight never made it past the plate. He didn't even have to drain them dry; just take a pint from one person before finding another.

Just as James was about to go into another story, his jacket beeped. He reached into it and removed a small TV that apparently Sephiroth was at the other end of. At the moment his face was scowling, and even James was affected by it. He placed the device on the table and scooted himself around it so that Sephiroth could see all three of them. Of course the general didn't wait for James to get into position before he began talking.

"Niro, Vincent, James, I need you three to execute operation Eleventh Hour. Now. Deliver this device to the Shinra boardroom one way or another. They'll be meeting there soon enough. Also, there's a WEAPON heading for Midgar, not that it should affect your mission in the slightest." All three of them stood up, and then Sephiroth spoke words which made Vincent's blood (and the blood of anyone else in his body) do a decent impression of ice water.

"Vincent, I want to talk to you privately." There was no argument, James and Niro left the room almost instantaneously. This was it: Vincent was alone with Sephiroth regardless of the actual distance between them. Words were unnecessary; Vincent and Sephiroth simply gazed into each other's eyes, Sephiroth apparently unready to say the say the first word, Vincent unwilling to break the silence. The calm before the storm would not last, however. "Tell me about my mother."

Vincent took a very deep breath, at least the distance between should keep Vincent from coming to any physical harm. "She was a wonderful woman. She never used her intelligence for anything but to try and help others. I won't lie to you and say it was love at first sight. I can only say that what grew was so strong not even our deaths could break it."

Sephiroth sneered at Vincent in contempt. "Actions speak louder then words. You should have killed Hojo while you had the chance." "She asked me not to." "You still should have..." "If Aeris asked you to do something that you knew in your heart and head was a bad idea, would you do it?"

It was desperate, but then Vincent didn't mind sounding desperate when he had to concentrate to keep his body from turning to shadow. He and Sephiroth stared each other down, for a long time, and Vincent played his last card.

"I'm going to bring her back to life." "What?" "I'm going to bring her back to life. I have almost everything I need. Vampiric blood, soil from Midgar, where she was born, Lifestream, and during Eleventh Hour I'll get the final ingredient, her blood." Sephiroth's glare intensified as he probed every part of Vincent's response. "You're going to rob Shinra's blood bank, they have samples from everyone who ever worked for them on ice, clever. But what makes you think that combination will work?"

"It works on me." "You'll need her body. She died about the same time you did, a skeleton will be the only thing left, if you're lucky." Vincent crossed his hands in irritation. "Hojo was kind enough to supply me with that. He treated your mother's body with a chemical to prevent decomposition, I saw it. It's hidden in the Nibelheim Mansion, a secret passage in the secret passage. I checked it myself." Sephiroth's glare did not lessen.

"You realize you're playing god, bringing a dead women back to life, even as much as you can call what you have 'life'?" Vincent finally straightened up and fully met Sephiroth without fear in his eyes. "I know, but don't try to tell me that you wouldn't boil the Lifestream and shatter the Planet for someone you cared about."

Sephiroth finally relented and looked wistfully at nothing. "What was her name?" Vincent drew a slow breath. "Lucretia." Sephiroth terminated the feed and Vincent picked up the small device. He walked out, and handed it back to James. Then he drew another breath. Compared to what he'd just been through, attacking Shinra HQ would be easy.

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Melkore Morningstar looked out at the huge thing making its way slowly towards Midgar. They were going to need a lot of firepower to stop that WEAPON. More firepower then the Valar had. He looked back at Midgar, and the city's new crowning jewel. His Mako Cannon had been moved to Midgar, and apparently hooked up to the reactors. He could only hope General Sephiroth's tongue was every bit as silver as his hair.

------------------------------ Rufus Shinra glared at the four other people in the room, Heidigger, Scarlet, Hojo and Reeve. "Those damn rebels have been a thorn in our side the entire time. Bad enough all the things they've done before, but by stealing the Huge Materia from every reactor, they've doomed the entire world. What are we going to do now?" Amazingly the answer came from Reeve.

"Well sir, if we could possibly angle the Mako Cannon -I mean Sister Ray- upwards we might have a chance. We all saw what it did to the WEAPON. If we could possibly find a way to hit Meteor with it, Meteor might be destroyed. Besides, in our current location, we can fire the cannon close to a dozen times, granted firing more then twice would put a strain on the city's power grid, but I think people will be more concerned about being killed then having blackouts."

There was a long pause in the room as Rufus mentally wondered how Reeve got so smart. Maybe it was just because he was normally in a job where he couldn't show it very often. After all he had been picked by his father and all of the board heads were quite intelligent, (insane sometimes, but intelligent). Granted, Horse Laugh was the exception, but he had only been a replacement for Sephiroth. "Heidigger, Scarlet, do whatever you have to do to implement Reeve's plan, it's the only thing we have to go on..."

"Oh I wouldn't be too sure about that!" All ten eyes turned to a private elevator leading into the room, and the man who had just left it. He wore a red jacket and T-shirt, red l pants, and a red hat tilted at just the right angle to let people see the red cat ear emerging from the left side of his head. He smiled at them and Hojo instantly rose to his feet. "PROJECT PATCHWORK!" The man leered right back at Hojo's words.

"That's right! But the rest of you may be more familiar with my code name, Firecat Firecat! I'm here as a messenger from SERAPH, an organization for the promotion of the institution of the supreme ideological ideal, on this planet! I'm here with a few words to deliver to you from my master, Lord Ilsephirotho! Now I suggest you pay attention to what I have to say."

A moment later a resounding "THUNK" was heard. The man dressed in red moved to the side slightly and turned around. Behind him was a man dressed all in black with sunglasses covering his eyes. "OUCH! Hey Niro, what was that for? It hurt!" The man in black just scowled at the one in red. "We weren't sent here to make fools out of ourselves for their amusement. Let's do our job."

The man in red continued rubbing the spot where the man in black had struck him with the butt of his pistol. "Okay fine, I'll get it right. No reason to hit me! Now here in the city of Fukuova, one can easily witness how the world has become corrupt!" There was another resounding whack as the man in black pistol whipped the one in red a second time. "James if you do that again I'm going to use the other end." Rufus turned back to the invited members of this meeting. "Who the hell let these idiots in?"

The man in red scowled at discovering himself no longer the center of attention. "Hey I'm no idiot! I'm James Firecat! I was only about a month away from be a certified killing machine, just ask the people who worked on me, oh, sorry, they're all dead! Now, since Senior Niro seems so intent on me actually following the script rather then having fun, I'll just do it."

With that James reached into his pocket and pulled out a small screen. He then calmly half walked half danced over to the table and slammed the device down it on it before walking away, his back completely to Rufus. That particular image, of course, made Rufus wish with all his heart that he had his shotgun. James pulled out a small remote and clicked it, causing nothing to happen.

He then hit a different button and still nothing happened. "Aw man, I told you that Sephiroth should have gotten me the one with just a power button, all this stuff is so complicated. Oh, right! The red button! I knew it was color coded!" He hit a third button and the screen came to life. James got out of the way and all four men (And one women) were drawn to the screen with the picture of a dead man on it.

General Sephiroth glared back out to them, although his eyes seemed to focused elsewhere. "Took you long enough, Recon. I trust the infiltration phase of the mission wasn't the problem?" James gave a quick salute to the screen with his left hand. "Of course it wasn't! I got past those guys like they were sound asleep... with help from Infiltration and Black Ops. I just had some trouble with the technological bits, anyway I present to you guys… General Sephiroth!"

James moved to the side and Sephiroth nodded slowly to all those present. "Welcome, I am glad to see you are all gathered in one place. Mr. President, it would seem to me that your business is no longer running, in fact thanks to us it is crawling along with a pair of broken legs and a splintered collarbone. If you haven't noticed, that means that despite your 'superior' forces my men have outmaneuvered and outfought yours consistently enough that I don't even have to threaten you in person. I'm going to give you a chance to surrender while you still exist." "SURRENDER? ABSURD!"

Sephiroth shifted his gaze slightly and leveled an armor-piercing stare at the speaker. "Excuse me 'General' Heidigger, I was talking to President Shinra. Granted I use 'General' loosely as I don't know of any army you command, more like a group of extortionists who happen to share both means and motive. Now President Shinra, I am on the airship Valar, currently out somewhere over the ocean, take a look."

Sephiroth motioned to his left and the camera moved. The camera focused on a distant dot, then zoomed in to identify it. The thing was a giant mechanical monster, like the WEAPON that had attacked Junon but of different design. A moment later the camera turned back to Sephiroth and zoomed out so that you could see his face just the same. "The current name we're using for this thing is Diamond WEAPON, it may seem small now, but it's moving very fast. From our calculation you have only about 10 minutes until it hits land. After that, another half an hour till it gets in range of Midgar. After that, who knows? Personally, I'm inclined to think it'll be a premature end to your fiscal year."

Sephiroth paused and two small timers appeared below his face. One ticking down from ten minutes and the other from forty. "Frankly this thing could wipe you off the face of the Planet and I wouldn't care. However, if it takes you, most likely it'll also take most of Midgar, and a lot of innocent people are going to die. I'm willing to offer you a temporary alliance right now." Sephiroth calmly raised his hand in a small gesture of peace, ever the perfect gentlemen.

"Sir, this man is insane."

"Am I 'General?'"

"Of course you are, not one of you is of sound mind! An alliance? With you terrorists?"

"I see, the soundness of your minds guaranties the frailty of mine. But who guaranties your sanity? Perhaps you people don't realize who you are talking to. Maybe it would help if I was wearing all the medals you showered me with for meaningless slaughter, all together they must weigh almost as much as Masamune. You clearly have no idea who we are, so let me introduce you..."

As Sephiroth spoke the camera adjusted slightly and came to rest on a woman with brown hair and green eyes who winked flirtatiously at the camera. One could hear Sephiroth growl under his breath. "Don't feed the tourists Mirri." The woman just smiled at the camera and clenched her fists, causing blades to instantly shoot out of them. "This is my second in command Mirri Catwarrior, suffice to say she'll slurp down your soul and leave you with the check."

The woman's smile only widened. "Oh and don't forget the side order of cinnamon tea." The camera shifted again and this time it settled on a wolf, a very big wolf. It was easily as long as Sephiroth was tall. The wolf suddenly managed to grow even bigger as it growled and made all of its fur stand on end.

"This is Alexander Diamondclaw, a Cetra. He's not much for public speaking but he tells me 'he'll personally disembowel every one of you Weave worshipping vermin and piss on your graves.' Well that and a few other things, he's become quite adept at the more vulgar aspects of the human languages, kind of makes you proud doesn't it?"

The camera shifted again and stopped on another woman with green eyes and brown hair, but unlike Mirri she looked apprehensive. "This is Aeris Gaste, Half-Cetra. Dr. Hojo, I know what you did to her father, and don't think I won't repay you in kind." The camera shifted another time, but this time it took longer, as if it was getting handed to someone else. Finally it settled on a blue eyed man in a white labcoat.

"My name is Dr. Morningstar, but I'm sure you all knew that. After all, it's my weapon of mass destruction that you have sitting in central Midgar right now. By the way, changing the name from "Melkore's Mako Cannon" to the "The Sister Ray"… You people are making Ernst Stavlo Blowfelt's body double roll over in his shallow grave!" The camera changed hands again and once again Sephiroth was the center of attention.

"You've already met Reconnaissance Officer Firecat, and Infiltration Officer Niro Rose. Sadly, our Black Ops specialist, Vincent Valentine, is a bit busy at the moment. But I'm sure by now you realize something. We are the Seraphim, the reincarnation of a select group of first class SOLDIERS chosen to serve first and foremost in battle, said to have operated as if we had been weaned on blood and breathed death. You say we're insane? I say you're at least a decade too late!

Besides, the time for questioning our sanity has passed, you should have done that while we still worked for you. You made every single one of us what we are, so what right have you to accuse us? The blood we shed is on your hands and not our own. You can try and stop us if you wish, but it won't do any good.

My war is not against you, President Shinra, or you, 'general' and your 'armies'. My war is not against a simple power company. My war is against the monster who resides in the depths of North Crater at this very moment, the monster called Jenova. You don't have much time to make your choice, but I can tell you this. I will not allow the citizens of Midgar to be exterminated like so many bugs just to deal with a few fools like you.

I am going to do everything I can to stop DIAMOND WEAPON when it strikes land, which it will in another handful of minuets. I suggest you do the same. My operatives will be waiting for an answer, any attack on them will have profound repercussions sooner or later. Goodbye." The screen went dead.

FN: Ignore the pseudo science of the idea that at the moment we can only store frozen blood effectively for up to 20 years and the sample Vincent plans to steal is probably well over 30 years old. Jenova cells and mako make it possible somehow, a wizard did it, THERE ARE NO PLOTHOLES, DAMN IT!

FN2: I know what your thinking, two short chapters in a row? When is all this actually going to pay off? Well the answer is the next chapter! Check in at the same Twilight time and same Twilight channel when we'll be having action, adventure, aliteration, chaos, catastrophe, calamity, danger, death, destruction, lights, lazers, and show stopping numbers? You think I'm kidding? There's only one way to find out!

OWAN: James, you should probably spell-check these 'notes' of yours. FN3: I know this chapter was short, so you can have this as well.

Mirri: This is the story of three different redheads.

(Shot of kitten sized James licking his ear)

(Shot of wolf cub Alex getting his fur licked by another wolf)

(Shot of Reno standing in front of a mirror. He licks his hand and smoothes down a cowlick which springs back up as soon as he takes his eyes off of it.)

Mirri: At least as different as you could expect three red heads to be. Granted they're not even the same species. Firecat...

(Shot of James laying on some rocks pawing at his tail as it hovers above him)

Mirri: Garou.

(Shot of Alex pumping 100 pound weights in either arm)

Mirri: And the jury is still deadlocked on this one.

Reno: I know I put the floor somewhere around here!

(Shot of Reno standing in a room whose floor is covered with dirty clothing)

Mirri: Of course they all have three things in common. They're desensitized towards violence.

(Shot of Alex lying down and suddenly someone casts a shadow over him)

Alex: I don't know your scent, so you have all of ten seconds to get out of my sunlight.

(Shot of Reno in a bar)

Reno: What do you mean you're closing? Get me another drink or I'll make myself a holy bartender!

(Shot of James facing off with a SOLDIER)

SOLDIER: You cut off my index fingers!

James: Seemed the quickest way to keep you from shooting me without killing you.

SOLDIER: (Flips James off) Damn it, now they aren't even middle fingers any more!

Mirri: Lack of survival instincts...

(Shot of Reno facing off with Sephiroth)

Reno's thoughts: I might get lucky.

(Shot of Alex cornered in Midgar)

Alex: There are a score of you with silver bullets against me. So… Should I fight with only three limbs to make it more fair?

(Shot of James going down a bar drinking from random shot glasses)

James: Water, 40 proof, 80 proof, 100 proof, cyanide, and ooh! Cinnamon tea!

(Reno holds up a card saying "6.0!")

Mirri: And they all work for me. That's why they're called Mirri's Seraphim.

(Shot of James, Alex, and Reno standing back to back)

OWAN2: James' mind is… different. I'm sure you've noticed that by now. Uh, I'm referring to the author version, not the character. We worry about that boy.


	33. Chapter 33

Chapter 33 Here we go, it's getting close, now it's just who wants it most!

Mirri exchanged looks with General Sephiroth and the rest of the group. "General, I've been fighting long enough to know when I'm about to lose. As I speak, I can see my death barreling down on me." The thing was huge, considerably bigger then the last WEAPON, and slowly making its way towards land. /We will be but fleas to it Black Fury, but I will not back down.\ Aeris did not have her staff, she had left it in Junon along with her need to use it.

"We don't have any choice. Whatever Shinra does, we have to buy them time. At the very least they may be able to evacuate parts of the city." The Valar hovered over them like a guardian angel. Sephiroth drew Masamune into his preferred two handed grip. "Even if we're nothing but fleas to that thing, we can bite it again and again. At least the Valar is a hornet, and it looks like it's got a nasty sting." "So then I suppose this will be known as Sephiroth's last stand won't it?" "Mirri, your humor is not appreciated." "General, there are times in life when you can either laugh or cry, and I always prefer to laugh."

----

"Sir it looks like Sephiroth and the others are going to try and stop the WEAPON. Rufus glared at Reeve as he brought them that news, even though it was the first good news about the situation. He had three terrorists loose, somewhere, in his building, and a giant monster heading for Midgar. But these problems were about to sort themselves out. "Reeve, start charging the Sister Ray, we'll take out that thing while Sephiroth holds it still!"

Wonderful, that made two problems which would deal with each other. Rufus hit another button, hopefully the intercom wouldn't have some kind of obstruction over it at the moment. "Reno..." He was in luck: apparently the Turk Lounge was taking calls today. "Yes, Mr. President?"

Rufus smiled as he spoke. "Reno, gather up Rude and Elena, I have a mission for you. I want you to search this building from top to bottom, find the three terrorists, and kill them." The line clicked dead, Reno should be able to take care of something as simple as that. Reeve, for some odd reason, looked surprised. Bah, what did it matter, sooner or later the world would understand his glory, Shinra would survive and rise again.

-----

It was clearly shaping up to be Sephiroth's last stand. Even Masamune did precious little against the WEAPON, even less than it had against the Zolom. Mirri's blades were totally useless, so she had switched to using magic which was little better. Aeris and Alex had both adopted their Crinos forms, but even the fangs and cclaws of the war form were ineffective against the lumbering monstrosity.

The Valar flew above them attacking with it's 20MM cannons and missiles. The cannons were barely "scratching the paint" though the missiles managed to at least give it something worse then a paper cut. The only good thing about the trying to fight he WEAPON was that it apparently was paying considerable less then its full attention to them. It had at least stopped its advance, but it was hardly hitting them with everything it had.

All it was doing was shooting some lasers, and launching a couple of rockets at them. The ground was getting pockmarked by explosions but not yet stained by blood. Though apparently, the WEAPON had just taken all the irritation it would. It stood still, and then every single weapon it had been possible to cram onto its body revealed itself. It was all pointed directly at them, like flies about to be nailed by a ton of bricks.

Mirri prepared for her death and waited for her life to flash before her eyes, or maybe some other kind of spiritual awareness. Nope. All she got was the bright white light that you generally don't want to go towards. She opened her eyes, and realized that perhaps Melkore deserved more credit then she had ever given him.

The WEAPON fired, but it was not firing at them. It was firing at Midgar, and even as it did so, Midgar fired on it. The Mako Cannon, or whatever stupid name Shinra was calling it by was every bit as good as Melkore said it was. Even the WEAPON stood no chance against what happened to it. The huge slug slammed through thing's body, and it was a perfect shot, right through the center of it.

The thing tilted backwards, even as it released its overstocked arsenal. All of the WEAPONS shots flew over their heads, and made their way straight towards Midgar. At the same time, the WEAPON had its death throes. It slammed into the water, and vanished from sight.

---

The Mako Cannon's slug kept going. Unlike the last one, this slug had managed to have built up enough velocity to keep going even after it hit the WEAPON. It kept going, straight on its path until it hit the invisible barrier protecting North Crater. That finally managed to stop the slug, but not before it as well gave before the Mako Cannon's might. Melkore Morningstar's pride and joy had destroyed both an unstoppable force and an immovable object with one shot.

----

Sadly for Dr. Melkore it would be a pyrrhic victory. Not even the Mako Cannon could stop the swarm of weaponry heading for Midgar, even if it was moving at a much lower speed.

----

Reno tapped his foot on the ground and hummed along with the elevator music. This would be simple and enjoyable. Finding the three terrorists meant searching this place from top to bottom, so that was just what he would do. Knowing the way that southpaw Firecat thought, Reno was sure that he would be on the roof. Someone as hopelessly attracted to bright shiny things as he was would be stuck starring out from the roof like a bug with a bugzapper.

Sadly his plans hit something of a surprise when the doors opened. "Hi!" Reno had to hand it to Firecat, throwing a sucker punch through the elevator as soon as it was wide enough to permit his arm through. That should have been something that Reno had decided to do! Fortunately, Reno knew better than to simply double over because he had been punched in the gut making his head an excellent target. Instead he decided to go the whole hog dropping flat on the floor of the elevator.

This was a good thing because there was no way for Firecat to hit him with another punch. Granted it did make him somewhat vulnerable to the old standard of "kick him when he's down" but just as he expected, Firecat was too nice for his own good. He didn't go for the kick and that gave Reno time to plant his feet under him and come up swinging. Firecat jumped back, and Reno decided that he might as well try and settle this with his fists since he didn't want to leave himself open by going for his nightstick.

He leapt forward with a quick jumpkick that Firecat ducked under. The moment his leading foot touched the ground, he twisted around and performed a leg sweep with his still airborne leg. He managed to successfully bring the leg down and hook it around Firecat's left leg, taking it out from under him.

Apparently Firecat had learned a couple things about momentum as well however. Rather than stumbling, he went with Reno's blow, and twisted his entire body to deliver a powerful punch to Reno. The Turk fell backwards rubbing his bruised cheek, but there were other things to worry about. Fireact of course had paid the price for that maneuver; by committing himself to the blow he had completely thrown off his sense of balance.

The end result of which was that all he could do was throw out his hands to catch himself as at the last moment. Fortunately for Reno, this was a situation that he had plenty of practice at. Even while he was rubbing his face with both hands, his right leg was winding up for the boot to the head that this situation demanded. Unfortunately Firecat was noticeably more aware of his surrounds then most people who Reno found himself kicking, saw it coming and rolled away.

By the time Reno managed to close with him, he had once again gotten his feet under him. "Okay righty, let's get this over with!" "Nothing would please me more lefty!" The two rushed at each other, and Reno paid Firecat back for his punch with a kick strong enough to knock a tooth from his mouth. Firecat fell back spitting some blood, apparently he hadn't realized that Reno had longer reach than he did.

Reno couldn't help but look at the tooth that he had knocked out, a man had to take pride in his work after all. It wasn't quite like any other one that he had knocked out, human canines just weren't that pronounced. Firecat was more cautious now, circling around Reno, so at once Reno started circling him as well. Yeah this felt right. Forget Shinra, forget the Seraphim, forget the war, forget Meteor, two men who wanted the same woman were going at it with everything they had.

Reno took a moment to take advantage of the fact that they were busy circling and finally drew his nightstick. He probed the slightly swollen side of his mouth and then spoke. "TURK LIGHT!" There was a brief flash off light from his nightstick and then Reno dashed at his disoriented foe. Reno then let Firecat have it with his own jab to the gut followed by a left hook and a right uppercut. Finally he threw in a nice solid kick to the gut that knocked his foe down flat.

Reno looked down at Firecat and cocked an eyebrow at him. "I dare you to get back up." Firecat shook his head to clear off the effects of Turk Light and smiled showing off the gap in his teeth. "What are the stakes?" "You just don't learn, do you?" Reno had to hand it to Firecat, he was damn fast. He rolled forward, balanced on his hands, and slammed both legs into Reno's chest. Then he pushed himself off the ground to land on his feet. "Ask Seph sometime; I think he'll have your answer."

Reno adjusted the grip on his nightstick bringing it back up to point at Firecat and smiled with his mouth still full of teeth. "Too bad for you, I don't either." James rushed in again and slid under Reno's kick taking his other leg out. Rather than try to get back up with Firecat to his back Reno rolled over, and got a foot planted firmly on his chest. It pushed him hard to the ground and his elbow hit the ground the wrong way. The limb went momentarily numb and the nightstick rolled from his hand. It was only after this happened that Reno discovered how Firecat had done it. He had decided not to turn around and had apparently somersaulted backwards, landing on Reno while still facing the other way.

"So how did you know I was going to try and kill you?" Firecat gave another kick to Reno's still flickering nightstick sending it skittering over the edge of the roof (great now he had lost two nightsticks in about a week. the quartermaster was going to rip him apart even if he survived this) and then took a moment to turn around. Once he had done that he seemed willing enough to make conversation. "Oh, I wasn't sure, but Mirri told me that you would. Mentioned something about a consistent track record." Damn, Reno had one of those didn't he?

How in the name of all that was malted was Reno suppose to win against somebody who was close to being as good as him, and had Mirri's ability to predict the future? It was like trying to pour an entire keg into a glass, without spilling any! "So are you going to kill me now?" What he heard affirmed his two worst fears. "Nah... Mirri said she wanted you alive, something about gloating. That's why I didn't use my wires during the fight either, in case you were wondering."

Fear number one: it was clearly Mirri who was giving this guy his orders. Fear number two: he would live long enough to get wiped out with the rest of humanity, that was no way for a Turk to go. Granted he might not have to worry about that second fear as his eyes caught something on the horizon.

"Umm Firecat, are you seeing what I think I'm seeing? Cause I think I see a storm of high explosives that's gonna kill us both." Firecat took one look up and spoke the words Reno always knew he would hear before he died. "Come on! Whatever happens next I'm sure as hell not gonna follow Mirri's orders halfway." Yep, Reno's impending death was now 100 certain.

---

Rufus Shinra looked out from his office and glared at Midgar. He glared at this city and glared at the world that had done this to him. But he would carry on and the name of Shinra would rise above. He watched and smiled as countless weapons thudded against the "glass" window of his office. While he had been honored in Junon contractors had been replacing his office window with one that would have been able to survive tank shells or strikes from Sephiroth's Masamune.

Let the rest of the world think what it wanted, money and forethought would always outlast natural skill. He saw it proven now quite clearly as those missiles slammed up against his window and didn't even scratch it. So much for the WEAPON.

-----

"You're Vincent Valentine." Vincent spun around as he suddenly discovered a foe had sneaked up on him while he had been studying the huge vault door between him and success. It had been no real obstacle at all, there was more than enough room for shadow to slip through, but now he had another problem. "I almost didn't realize it was you, you look younger then you did the last time I saw you."

Vincent looked up from his work, the Turk had managed to catch him flat footed, that alone showed his skill. In a stroke of pure blind luck Vincent actually did recognize the person who was talking to him. "Tseng, you look much older then you did the last time we met." The two former Turks, neither of whom now worked for Shinra took a moment to size each other up.

"You know, this can only end one way." "There can be no peace between my mistress and yours." "Last time I checked you served a master." "My martial allegiances haven't changed in the slightest, now I just work for something else as well... never mind." "What?" "It's too pathetic to say out loud." "True love?" "Straight in one." "You _are_ pathetic." "What are you working for? Unlimited power? When it comes to this vicious cabaret they call life, from the lead to the extras every single one of us is pathetic." "Fair enough."

Tseng drew forth a glowing green sword from a sheath on his back, and held it before him with both hands. "Hojo made this for me. I realized that guns were too unreliable. This is sword rivals your son's, it's called the Makomune." Vincent sniggered in contempt. "You think someone as smart as Hojo claims to be could come up with more original name." "Yes I know. I hope Jenova purges him. Oh, and by the way, I saw you on your way out to Nibelheim when I was first coming in as a recruit."

"I know, I recognize that spot on your head, I'm surprised you did so well in the business with such a distinctive mark." "We're Turks, people don't see us in the first place." "A valid point." They both looked at each other with mutual respect and hatred. The age reversal was ironic, Vincent had drunk so much blood inside Midgar that he looked like little more then a new recruit. Tseng was still mortal and mako and Jenova cells could only do so much, he looked the age Vincent had before he died. if not a little older.

The two looked at each other, and they bowed to each other, they were both Wutaians, they had both gone to Shinra, and they had both deserted Shinra the moment another opportunity had come along. As soon as they straightened, there was no signal, they both simply acted. Vincent emptied 10 shots in Tseng's direction, classic Turk maneuver, always leave a bullet in each gun.

Tseng was too fast for anything as simple as a bullet to stop him however. He dodged all of the rounds, and then with a grotesque smile he drove his blade home. The Makomune went right through Vincent's claw, and then up through Vincent's entire left arm was shattered in a mind wrenching blast of pain. The Cassul was left as nothing but a melted heap of scrap from it's brush with Makomune's blade. Vincent fell backwards, and at the same time Tseng took Vincent's legs off at the kneecap with his blade.

He drove forward to finish Vincent off with a stab through the heart, and then recoiled backwards in pain. Vincent had only one hand, but there was one critical difference between an enhanced human, and a vampire. Even having taken wounds from a sword that had apparently been forged of solid mako wasn't enough to break his stride. What would have been crippling pain to someone else, he was able to push aside long enough to get the job done.

Even with only one arm and no legs, Vincent, was not impeded by his situation, he put his last bullet right in Tseng's head when he overconfidently went for a quick, clean kill. Tseng fell back, but it was only a 9MM lead bullet, even in the head it wouldn't kill him. Vincent crawled towards the vault door, dissolving his body to shadows as he went through it. Tseng was back on his feet soon however, and he put a hand to the wall.

"Not bad Vincent, this might as well be a bank vault door, there's no crack large enough for me to slip through. But then I'm totally prepped for this. I'm going to blow this thing off its hinges. It doesn't matter how much blood you drink, I'll have you in a moment." It did take slightly more then a moment for Tseng to set the explosives, but Vincent had no place to run to. Particularly when Tseng had his boots right here, Vincent would need them before the sun rose, not that he would live that long. Just a touch of a button, and the vault door was in pieces.

-----

"THANKS A LOT FLAMETAIL! YOU SAVED MY LIFE JUST TO KILL ME!" "DON'T BLAME ME, BLAME THE WEAPON!" "FOR ALL THE GOOD THAT'S GONNA DO ME!" "SHUT UP!"

Things were not looking good. James and Reno were currently failing the 70 stories to a splattery end on the sidewalk of Upper Midgar. Of course if James hadn't jumped off of the roof of the Shinra building they would have both been incinerated by the attack that had blown away most of the top floors of the building. Of course that didn't seem very philosophically comforting to Reno.

"THIS IS IT LEFTY! WE'RE GOING TO DIE AND THEN MIRRI IS GOING TO BECOME AN OLD SPINSTER WITHOUT ONE OF US TO MARRY! FOR THE SAKE OF THE HOTNESS THAT IS CATWARRIOR I CAN'T LET THAT HAPPEN!" "THEN WHAT DO YOU SUGGEST?" "WE BOTH SURVIVE!" "GOOD PLAN!" "YEAH, BUT THE IMPLEMENTATION IS A BITCH!" "I'VE GOT THIS ONE!"

James whipped the wires out of his gloves, and shot them out at a rapidly passing statue jutting off of Shinra HQ like a gargoyle. They wrapped around it, and James tried to give his wires as much length as he could. Thus he and Reno found himself precariously hanging 20 stories suspended only by a thin white line of hope. A white line of hope that was wrapped around a monument to "Shinra's Solid Foundations". Had he been a very different Firecat indeed, he might have wondered how he knew to use the 'safe' wires that Melkore had installed but forgotten to mention. "Wow, nice job lefty."

"I didn't do it for you, I did it for Mirri." "Wonderful anyway Firecat, okay now lets swing ourselves through that glass window and get back inside." "Sounds like a plan." "But first, let's share a scream." "FORRRRRR MIRRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIII!" They smashed through the window together, both James and Reno were beaten and bloodied, but far from broken as James snapped his wires back into his gloves.

The two red heads looked at each other, and smiled. Reno couldn't help but notice that the tooth he had knocked out of James' mouth had regrown. He also felt the swelling already going down in his cheek, and to think some people said mad scientists were only good for holding the world hostage with death rays. "You know, lefty I'm starting to like you." "Me too." "Truce?" "Truce." "For Mirri?" "For Mirri." Reno slipped off his blue Turk outfit, revealing a shirt stained by so many different materials it's original color was impossible to verify. He stretched like he had spent hours in a jail cell, and spat on his uniform. "F you Shinra! I'm now in the service of Mirri Catwarrior!" "Power to the princess!" "And Gaia save the queen! But first I have to find a phone." "What?"

----

"Sephiroth, this isn't good at all." Melkore was hunched over the Valar's control panel which he hadn't left ever since the battle had started because he had been running diagnostics on the damage done to his ship however light it was. Sephiroth didn't bother to look at Melkore. "What is it?" "Shinra is preparing to fire my Mako Cannon again." Sephiroth was not even mildly perturbed. "So? Don't tell me this thing has been damaged so badly that it can't break any kind of lock they have on us."

Melkore spun around his face filled with blind rage, the only time he had ever come close to this level of anger was when his laptop had saved his life by taking a bullet for him (Melkore had given her armor plating for just such an occasion). Poor Megabyte (Meg) Morningstar, the world hadn't been made for one as beautiful as her. That sniper had disserved far worse then simply having his head bashed out in a rage by Meg's monitor.

This was even worse for Melkore. "Of course we can dodge! But the Mako Cannon is just what it sounds like, A CANNON! General please tell me all those stars you got were not just to make your uniform look shiny! Tell me that you've studied military history!" Melkore's helpless rage at Sephiroth's unemotional face was spared at this time by an angel. Or by Mirri at least, she seemed to flip flop between being an angel and a devil, generally depending on whether she was helping or hurting you.

"_Please,_ doctor, enlighten us." Melkore slammed his hands down on the control panel (accidentally damaging parts of it, he didn't know his own strength) in vindication. "THANK YOU! Now, ancient cannon style weapons existed before we had the powerful steel we now use to make them, they made cannons out of iron! They couldn't be fired near as fast because otherwise the cannon's shots would generate enough heat to melt the barrel and in very bad situations, cause the cannon to explode."

Mirri nodded along confirming everything he said and filling in slightly. "He's right, that's not a problem with modern day ordinance, but older weapons, back when they measured the weapons in weight rather than size, the cannon's rate of fire went down over time to let the barrels cool." Now that he knew he had Sephiroth's attention Melkore turned back to his readings. "Shinra is preparing to fire the Mako Cannon again, and they can't! The thing should be allowed to cool down for at least a full hour, and it's only been half that! Shinra is just charging the cannon full of juice, and if someone presses the fire button... boom."

Melkore covered his eyes and wept in pain. It wasn't fair! How could it come to this? "Boom?" That was Sephiroth, but Melkore couldn't force words out of his mouth. Mirri, showing her traditional distain for anyone's emotions but her own, could. "Boom, Sephiroth. Boom, there goes all of Midgar wiped out in the blink of an eye thanks to a mako explosion. Upper and Lower, even if some of the buildings survive people will choke to death on gaseous mako. The lucky people will die instantly, the unlucky ones become horrible monstrosities and _then_ die, boom. But most of all as I'm sure Melkore is thinking, boom, the Mako Cannon's greatest act of destruction will be its own."

Melkore finally managed to get words out through his blind rage. "So help me gods, Shinra will not destroy my masterpiece by doing something so idiotic as this!" Mirri tapped her foot with a look on her face that Melkore knew all too well. It was the look she used when she was simultaneously being an angel and a deamon, not some mix of the two, simply both at once. "I don't know... Midgar land of 'mako and honey' only appropriate that goes down in mako. Thing about it, boom, no more Shinra HQ, and the entire company is blasted off the map. Can't think of a more deserving place."

"Boom, no more James." Mirri spun around and faced the fourth person who had entered the conversation, a mix of pride and anger in her eyes. "You're getting too smart, sweetheart. Midgar has been hit by a hurricane of firepower from that WEAPON, and knowing James, he'll be at the center of it all. Someone is gonna have to pull his flaming tail out of the fire and I'll do it by his ears if I have to."

Sephiroth nodded briefly. "Melkore, set a course for Midgar." The order was unneeded, Melkore had already grabbed the steering controls and activated the ships comm. Thus not a single person aboard the Valar would go unknowing of Melkore's cry of mingled panic and triumph. "HOLD ON, BABY, MELKORE IS COMING TO SAVE YOU!"

----

Reno picked up a phone and listened to the dial tone and then turned to his new, for lack of a better word, partner. "Hey I should warn you that I'm about to kill someone." James scratched an ear. "You're going to beat someone to death with a phone? Cause if it's me, I have a problem with it." Reno shook his head and took a moment to dial the first three digits. "No, I got smarter than that a long time ago. I might try to strangle someone with a phone chord now, but that's neither here nor there. It's just that I've tried to kill you, hit on your girl, and you still haven't killed me. Quite frankly I don't know how to be more offensive without trying to kill Mirri and hit on you, but I'm just not willing to go down that road. Anyway, I'd have to say that you are a, well, I think the phrase 'pussy' works however you want to define it. Granted there's a pretty good consensus in Midgar that I'm a rat so I guess it's understandable why I keep losing to you. So do you have a problem with me killing someone?" "Depends, who are you killing?" "Rufus Shinra."

"Mirri gave me a list of the people who we were supposed to take out if Shinra tried to stab us in the back and Sephiroth okayed most of it. Rufus is right up there at the top with Hojo, roll with it, it's what Mirri would do." "Yeah I know, I'm thinking of making that into a bumpersticker. WWMD?"

----

Rufus Shinra's office phone rang and he picked it up. "Yes?" "Can you hear me now?" Rufus practically snarled his response into the phone. "Reno, you better be calling to tell me that you've gotten rid of the terrorists." "Well about that, I've joined them. But I really don't think you should put down the phone because this is the last call of your life." "WHAT?"

Reno's voice was a cockily sure as ever. "Well it's like this Rufus. I never really liked you. In fact, to put a fine point on it, I've grown to hate you over the years. What with you being a stuck up brat who has been given everything his wanted and me being a humble servant of the people, or at least a kid born in the gutter who has done a lot more work than you ever have. And I hold that statement as true even bearing in mind this is me we're talking about.

So there comes a time when a man must decide that there are some things that no amount of money can make him do. Like put up with taking any more orders from you to pick one at random. But to get back on the subject of what money can make a man do, you should know that I got pretty friendly with those contractors you hired right after your father's death while I was recovering from my injuries. I bought them a couple of rounds, this and that.

I don't mean to ramble, but would you do me a favor and look behind that picture of you that you have hanging in your office?" Rufus walked over to it still holding onto the cordless phone, not quite sure why he was doing this. He pushed aside the picture and found an open safe behind it. It had a video camera in it. But that wasn't what really drew his attention, that was several blocks of C4 in the safe with a stick note reading "Love: from Reno" attached to one. Reno's voice grew even cockier.

"I had the contractors knock the hole in your wall while they were working on your window and I prepared the 'gift basket' myself, you like it? By the way, wave, I'm watching you right now on my camera phone and you should see your face! Of course I'm also about to use my phone to send a message that will detonate that pile of explosives, but really, it's hard to tell which function I'm enjoying more at the moment." "Reno think about what you're about to do." It was a hopeless plea, Reno never thought about what he did.

"Did I just pop the rose -or should I say gil- colored bubble you were living in Rufus? I'm thrilled, to be honest. Of course, to be fair, I only expected to do this as a bit of petty revenge rather than as my very first political killing, but ce la guerre. All I can say is that you should take a deep breath and realize that this, Mr. President, is the sound of ME firing YOU."

"CLICK!" For the first time in his life someone had hung up on Rufus Shinra. Then a cellphone sitting on top of the explosives decided to play what from Reno's point of view must have been a delightful little jingle. "One, two, fuck you! Don't tell me what to do!" After which the explosives went off with Rufus standing less than a foot away from them. He had just enough time to wonder how exactly he had been out thought and outbought by a man whose only use for a tie was to mop up spilled liquor.

---------

"What the hell are you?" It was impossible. The Makomune had been made of steel mixed with mako, it should inflict wounds that Vincent wouldn't be able to heal, Hojo had told him so! But Tseng was forced to once again become acutely aware of the gap between what Hojo's theories suggested and reality. Not only had Vincent regrown both his legs, (even if he was standing barefoot) he had also grown back the arm that he had lost 30 years ago.

That was the sight that Tseng had been greeted with when his charge blew the vault door wide open. Vincent Valentine once more looked the age he had been when he died, but for some reason that age now seemed to suit him. He was dressed in a Turk uniform except that it was now crimson instead of blue. The long rifle he gripped in his newly restored left hand would have been frightening to a normal person, to Tseng it was nothing.

"Not that it matters, you expect to fight me with that out of date boomstick?" Vincent smiled all too confidently for the way Tseng had won the first round of fighting between them. "Justice never goes out of style." Vincent pulled the trigger, and Tseng prepared to block the round with his sword. But the single shot rifle's bullet missed him by a mile. It flew over his head and Tseng stared at Vincent, amazed that the supposedly expert gunman could have done that. "You missed."

Tseng prepared to run Vincent through and finally kill his foe. "This gun doesn't miss. It'll seek you to your grave and even farther on. There is no escape, there is only the end, your sentence has been decided, you will receive the Death Penalty." "Death Penalty" was in fact the name etched on the side of the rifle which Vincent was holding. Tseng stepped forward to put an end to this drivel, and then stopped. Death Penalty's round slammed through his chest, it was not a critical wound, but it was impossible! The bullet had flown over his head, to have hit him now, it would have had to have reversed in flight!

Bullets were powerful and fast, but they were not magical tools! Bullets could only attack in straight lines! Then his horror grew, it was a straight line that the bullet followed, but more then one. It slammed through his chest, and then it sped straight towards Vincent. But halfway to Vincent, the bullet stopped, shot to the right, then it shot to the right twice more, which left it pointing right at Tseng. It was another straight line for it to follow through Tseng a second time.

Tseng turned, this was insane, he was going insane. "The bullet is filled with my blood Tseng, ingenious isn't it? I can control my blood even when it is separate from my body, letting me control my bullets. The gun may not seem impressive at first, but it is not the gun that will kill you, it will be the bullets, or bullet in this case." Tseng turned to run, but the bullet was staring him in the face. It was mocking him, and it blew through his chest for the third time.

He ran, and the bullet hit him for the forth time. He ran down the hall, and he was hit a fifth time. He turned a corner, but the bullet still followed him, going around a corner, like some demonic joke. It shattered his kneecap with that hit and he fell to the floor, well aware that his demise would be very soon.

Vincent was apparently getting tired of the joke, however. The bullet flew over Tseng's head, and turned around to face him. It flew straight at him, and at the very last moment, stopped. It stopped an immeasurably short distance from his head. Tseng could here the sound of Vincent's boots (he had put them back on) on the floor as he walked up on him. "If you're going to betray everything you believe in Tseng, you shouldn't ever look back. Allow me to free you from the last vestiges of your humanity." Tseng felt Vincent lift him up, and sink his fangs into his neck. Freedom was painful.

-----

"Where are we going?" "The motor pool, don't you recognize it from the last time you went here?" "No." "Okay, well that's where we're going. We're going to borrow something to help Mirri. Understand?" "You had me at 'Mirri'." "...'kay."

-----

"So how do we get down there?" "We fall, like angels." Sephiroth, Aeris, Mirri, Alex, and Melkore looked down on Midgar. It was time to get to work. Alex was in his human form, and he looked even less sure of himself then Melkore did. "Are you sure this para-chute will work?" Aeris touched Alex's arm lightly. "It will work Alex, it will work." Of course Aeris' words might have been a bit more convincing if she had ever done anything like this. So in the end Aeris, Alex, and Melkore all turned their attentions to Mirri and Sephiroth.

"I commanded an _army_. Air support was Scarlet's job." "I was first class SOLDIER, but I always fought with two feet on the ground." Melkore summed up the problem quite well. "So basically, none of us have ever done air ops, and we're now about to try for the first time?" "Yeah. Don't worry, you just have to pull the chord. I'm sure Alex will have no problem with that so what right do you have to complain, Melkore?"

"Mirri I hope that your chute malfunctions. Because then, when you have to unfurl your batlike wings for the world to see in order to keep from splattering, people will finally recognize you for the demon you are." "Don't bet your cannon on it happening Melkore." They all jumped, counted to five, and pulled the chords. The parachutes deployed and five people drifted safely to the streets of Upper Midgar.

----

Four people landed gracefully on the streets of Upper Midgar. Sephiroth and Mirri both possessed too much generic training to screw up something as simple as the landing. Aeris and Alex both managed to pull it off successfully, chiefly because both of them grew claws to slice the straps off right before they hit the ground. Melkore Morningstar was not so lucky. He landed on his feet, but wasn't fast enough cutting his ropes.

His parachute fell down on top of him like a collapsing tent. They had landed almost directly on the doorstep of what was left of Shinra HQ. SOLDIERS and guards were already rushing out to challenge them, and Mirri quickly made her hostility clear. As soon as she fired her first salvo she turned to her commander. "Sephiroth, you and Aeris should go deal with whoever is overcharging the Mako Cannon. We'll fight a rearguard action here."

Sephiroth blatantly disregarded Mirri's words, walking right past her to face the guards emerging from Shinra HQ. "Get out of here now, or I might just suffer a nervous twitch and kill you all." The guards raised their guns. Sephiroth stood perfectly still. "You should seriously think about what you're doing, because you don't seem to be realizing one very important thing, men: I'm General Sephiroth. You know those stories about how I could defeat an entire army just by snapping my fingers? Not. Stories."

Sephiroth's middle finger brushed up against his thumb. A small spark left his hands. It flew forward, and when it hit the ground it suddenly exploded into a giant ball of flame. When it dissipated Sephiroth once again had his fingers ready to snap again and madness glinted in his eyes.

"Run! Run! Or you'll be well done!" The Shinra personnel turned about and gallantly they chickened out before Sephiroth's hand moved again. Sephiroth helped them on their way by snapping his fingers a few more times inflicting more property damage on the streets of Midgar.

Then he turned toward Shinra HQ and snapped his fingers again. This spark struck just as accurately as all of his others, and when the dust cleared, the rubble that was left had created an impromptu barricade to keep more Shinra personnel from joining the fight. Only once he had dealt with the immediate threat did Sephiroth turn to Mirri.

"Why should Aeris and I deal with whoever is responsible for this?" Mirri shrugged and pointed towards the Mako Cannon. "Simple logic. All of Shinra is going to hell, who would be smart enough to know what firing the Mako Cannon again would do, yet stupid enough to want to do it? Or to be more exact, who would want to destroy all of Midgar, but be high enough up on the Shinra list to have access to the cannon?"

Sephiroth stared at Mirri as he suddenly realized that at times all his tactical brilliance wasn't worth a damn off the field. "Hojo. Aeris, come on we're going to finish him off once and for all. Mirri, Alex, Melkore, whatever else happens, hold them back." Mirri gave Sephiroth a thumbs up and Alex started to shift into his Crinos form. Aeris shifted to her full lupine form so that she could keep up with Sephiroth.

As Sephiroth and Aeris took off, Melkore finally managed to get out from under his parachute. He took one look at "his" Mako Cannon and was about to take off when Mirri put a restraining hand on his shoulder. "You're not going anywhere, Mornignstar. And before you say a single thing, the Mako Cannon is not related to you, so it's your job to kill every single person working for Shinra who tries to get past us. Understand?" /You had better Glasswalker, I'll drag you to the frontlines with my teeth if I have to.\

As Alex "spoke" the impromptu barricade before Shinra HQ was blasted apart as someone apparently managed to find some explosives to use on it. As guards rushed out, a very odd thing happened. Melkore stepped forward, and bravely faced his foes. Even as the men started shooting, Melkore made a small adjustment on his guitar and started playing.

The bullets stopped halfway to Melkore, and then suddenly they suddenly flew backwards. The guards followed suit as waves of pure sound slammed into them, knocking them to the ground. Melkore stopped playing once he had floored all of the guards, and the waves of sound stopped. He turned to his two very surprised partners and smiled. "Did you guys like that? It seemed to have a nasty feedback effect!"

--

"Hojo." Hojo turned around and faced Aeris and Sephiroth with a mix of anger, surprise, and delight. "Oh, it's you two." Sephiroth's response held only cold rage. "Step away from the control panel, it's over. Shinra's being wiped out as we speak and Melkore tells me that 'invincible' barrier protecting Jenova has already been broken. Once I'm done with you, I'll go deal with Jenova. Consider all of your experiments finished."

Hojo laughed as he reached into his pockets and tossed a number of empty syringes over the railing to fall where they would. "That's the wonderful thing about it Sephiroth, this experiment called 'life' that whatever powers exist are making us run will never end! Science is trial and error, forbidding research because it is "immoral", don't make me laugh! It's not only myopic but reckless!

Don't you realize everything I've done for you Sephiroth? I have made you a god among men, and don't you have any gratitude for me? But then I suppose it is simply a matter of hate, it is the nature of man to make monsters, and the nature of monsters to destroy their creators." Masamune felt incredibly warm in Sephiroth's hands. "You don't get it, do you, Hojo? This stopped being just about you and me decades ago. This is about everything you did, everything you would have done, and now the only thing you have left to do: die."

Hojo smiled that incredibly greasy smile of his at Sephiroth. "You know Sephiroth, you're absolutely right." Without a moment's hesitation he reached for the firing button and Sephiroth was caught flatfootted for one of the few times in his life. Where military training failed however, instinct was more then ready to pick up the slack. Aeris leapt past the stunned Sephiroth and when Hojo's right hand was almost to the button when Aeris bit down on it, and then with a good yank proceeded to rip it free of Hojo's shoulder.

Then with supremely calm kick from her right back leg she knocked Hojo backwards, before she took her time about eating the limb whole down to its last bit of marrow. Hojo stared in shock as the wolf Aeris then proceeded to latch her teeth firmly around the lever responsible to how much power was flowing into the mako cannon and pull it down from 100 to 0.

The whining sound that the cannon had been emanating quickly became little more then a hum. Sephiroth meanwhile placed Masamune at Hojo's neck and smiled. "Thank you Aeris, now then let's settle this shall we?" Aeris looked over at Hojo, and a lupine tongue licked her very sharp canines.

----

Niro looked around the wreckage of the 68th floor of the Shinra building. Most of the WEAPON'S fire had been focused on the upper two floors, but this one had been hit badly as well. Many sections of it have the roof cave in partially and it was slow going even for Niro.

Still, even if he had to climb over some pieces of rubble and crawl under some others, he had finally made his way to Hojo's lab. There was no reason for Hojo to have kept working on it since he left, but common sense was not Hojo's strongest point. The thing he needed was in plain sight once he finally got into what was left of Hojo's lab. It was lying on a table all shiny and new without ever having once been used, that would be a shameful way for any weapon to exist. A case for it was nearby and Niro placed it inside its protective case before slipping it over his left shoulder to hang opposite his gun.

"Freeze." Niro turned around, it was the bald Turk whose name Niro couldn't remember saying anything the last time they had met, and the blond one was with him. The bald Turk however took one look at Elena once Niro was finally looking back at him and lowered his gun. "We do this because it's our job, and a job is only a job so long as we get paid. I have a strong feeling that won't be happening anytime soon, so long." The Turk saluted Niro and then he turned around, Niro exited through an already broken window, shifting as he went.

----

The thing was so big that the ground shook with each step it took. It was painted red, and, although it was nowhere near as big as the WEAPON had been, there was some kind of huge artillery cannon on its back. As it marched toward the three of them an amplified voice boomed out of it. "We have you now, terrorists! Prepare to face the might of the anti-WEAPON armor, THE PROUD CLOD!"

Mirri snickered into her hand, and Alex nearly howled with mirth. Melkore was slightly more concerned about the possibility of his imminent destruction then what the name of the hand that killed him was. "Uh, guys, is it really a good idea, to be laughing when we can't run and that thing is about to squash us like cockroaches? Because right now, I really wish I had the Valar."

It was too late for his words to prepare his companions for battle. The Proud Clod, directed by the hands of General Heidigger and Weapons Developer Scarlet, quickly leveled every weapon it had at them. What happened next can only be called a miracle of modern engineering.

Every single one of those weapons misfired. Guns jammed, rockets exploded inside their firing tubes, beams overheated and melted their focusing devices, it was the same everywhere. Melkore certainly found the entire debacle a religious experience, rather like Jesus suddenly realizing as he put his foot down that the water would support him rather then giving way.

With all the vigor of a fresh convert he pointed an accusing finger at the fumbling and disarmed behemoth before him. Like Jesus attacking the money changers Melkore berated the greatest disrespect to God in his holy book. "SLAPDASH CONSTRUCTION WORK!" Perhaps somewhere in Melkore's largely amoral family tree some member of it had been an inquisitor, either way there could be no mistaking the tone of voice he took. "MASS PRODUCED TRINKETS! SOULLESS EXPRESSIONS!"

Needless to say things seemed quite willing go along with Melkore's rage for at the end of his last charge there was a huge "BOOM" that echoed through the streets. Had Melkore been a priest of some holy order that sound might have been the resounding blast of thunder striking the sinners down where they stood As it was, it was a sound that came before the sinners were struck down, though it still did herald their imminent destruction.

The huge cannon on the back of the Proud Clod exploded in flames, and the rest of the Proud Clod was soon alight with more explosions. Apparently whatever had destroyed the cannon had also hit the thing's various munitions, which were now all going off like a string of firecrackers. There was no instantaneous destruction, that of course annoyed Melkore as well because a "good" weapon should die in the blink of an eye, eradicated by the same kind of unstoppable force it dealt.

The Proud Clod, however, refused to die; it was simply to massive even for the magazines' eruptions to destroy it. Still, its destruction would be coming, Melkore might not be able to see the person who spoke from behind the Proud Clod, but his voice was unmistakable. "Direct hit Mr. Reno, load another round and fire!" There was another loud boom as shell of a size that Melkore couldn't see slammed into the back of the Proud Clod.

The monstrosity buckled and swayed like it was drunk yet still too big to simply understand that it was dead. That same voice broke the night again, this time giving a new target to the gunner. "Another hit! Now clip it on the right shoulder!" This time there was greater length between the command and the resounding "BOOM" but it came.

The round did just what the commander had wanted it to, causing the Proud Clod to spin helplessly. It began to part walk, part fall backwards, (crushing a few houses as it went) but it did manage to regain it's balance. Sadly for it, it did this on the very edge of the giant hole where the Sector Seven plate used to be. With the Proud Clod no longer between them Melkore, Mirri and Alex could see the backstabbers who were proving quite important in destroying the helpless Proud Clod.

James Firecat, perched on the top of a Shinra tank would have made a fine recruiting poster. Its caption could have read "join the army, it's so simple even this guy can do it!" James bellowed new commands down into his tank. "Spin us around and fire right in the thing's chest!" The tank rotated slowly as its treads were not exactly made for spinning around quickly, and its barrel adjusted for the distance.

BLAM! The shell shot as truly all of the others. It slammed into the body of the Proud Clod and exploded. The thing teetered backwards, and it took "one small step for man" one giant drop for the sake of humanity. It tried to right itself, but had no chance, the Proud Clod soon plummeted from view to be dashed to pieces on the bottom of the plate.

Later studies would show no survivors, but even if they had been, they would not be bothering the group for a considerable length of time. James whistled and soon another body joined him on the top of the tank. It looked like that red haired Turk but he wasn't wearing his uniform. "Reno!" Apparently it _was_ that Turk but he wasn't wearing his uniform. Even though Mirri didn't currently have blades loaded into her gloves, Reno was acting as if she had.

"Easy, easy, Catwarrior! Do you think I would have been following you around for so long if I couldn't tell which side is winning? Besides, your catboy took away my gun and my nightstick." Mirri cocked an eyebrow at Reno who was smiling far too innocently. He should have known better than to try and play innocent; when he was next to James he would always look guilty by comparison.

"James did you check his pants?" Deciding to spare himself the embarrassment Reno reached into his quite numerous pockets (the pants were as much a part of the Turk uniform as the suit) and removed the following: a .22 pistol with a silencer on it, two grenades (one incendiary, one shrapnel), a pack of cigarettes, a cigarette lighter, another gun of indeterminate caliber disguised as a gun that was supposedly a cigarette lighter, a couple of anti-hangover pills, several clips of ammunition, and a wallet containing a superfluous number of IDs. Finally Reno removed his tie which, while looking like an ordinary clip on was actually made of a strong enough material that he could (and had) garroted people with it before.

Tossing all of those before Mirri he spread his arms awkwardly. "There, that's everything I have. The only place left to look for concealed weapons would be between my legs." Melkore had obviously gotten to know Mirri much better then Reno had, because he knew what she would say to that. "James kick him between the legs and tell me if you feel anything metal."

Melkore shut his eyes tight and bowed his head in a silent prayer for a fellow brother of the wounded crotch. When it was over, Reno lay doubled over on top of the tank looking at Mirri upside down. "Fair enough..." he managed to wheeze out in his high pitched voice. "He's clean!"

James sounded far too amused by the pronunciation, and Mirri looked far too amused by it. Alex amazingly enough was perhaps having his first true moments of sympathy for a human being he hadn't known. Melkore could guess well enough what the cause was, Alex was also a member of the brotherhood of the wounded crotch. Funny how the oddest things could bring people together.

----

Hojo practically burst out of his skin before Sephiroth. His clothes were shredded as badly as his skin, and that was left was a rapidly dissolving organs and skeleton. But as rapidly as it was dissolving it was reforming itself in the shape of a monster with two horrendous arms.

Aeris jumped backwards, already shifting from being "merely" a four and a half foot long wolf to her Crinos shape. It was not as grand as Alex's, but it was still a considerable threat to be reckoned with. Sephiroth switched Masamune's grip from one hand to two, and regarded the monster like some particularly aggressive lump of ambulatory offal. "It's nice to see that the outside finally matches the inside!"

A huge hand lashed out at Sephiroth who ducked to the side, the hand left a dent where it landed. Sephiroth slashed out at the hand, but it was like striking at water. His blade went right through the arm severing it, but the moment his blade left Hojo's body the hand reconnected itself. That unexpected ability caught Sephiroth by surprise, when he could ill afford it. The other hand whipped out at him striking him in his chest and knocked him backwards. He almost went over the platform, but managed to shift his grip on Masamune to one handed fast enough to grab the railing as he flew past it.

He held on as it sagged under his (and Masamune's) weight but began to pull himself back onto the platform. Even as he started however, the beast that had been Hojo closed in to finish him. Aeris dashed between him and Hojo, letting out a howl to the sky, and then standing perfectly still. Hojo rained blow after blow on Aeris but she neither grave ground or showed any sign of wounds.

It continued, as Sephiroth pulled himself out of his indefensible state at rate so slow it felt like it took hours. Even as Sephiroth managed to get back on the field of battle, things were already turning in his favor. Hojo seemed to be slowing down from throwing so many blows while Aeris was showing nothing of the kind. She must have sensed this shift in momentum for after shrugging off another of Hojo's attacks she suddenly dashed right at him.

The monster that had been Hojo exploded in every direction as Aeris slammed through his body. Before Sephiroth or Aeris could catch their breath with relief however the pieces of Hojo's body once again began to pull themselves back together. This time the shape they took was relatively human. It bore a gross representation of Hojo's face, though it floated in the air, and had no legs but instead a long tail. It looked rather like a horrific representation of a naga of legend.

Sephiroth braced himself, when suddenly he saw a flash in Aeris now golden yellow eyes. He saw it, and it made an inability to communicate with words minute beyond measure. Aeris and Sephiroth both rushed the monster at the same time, Sephiroth heading to meet it face to face, Aeris hitting it from behind. Whatever unknown powers this form granted Hojo, they did not avail him against naked force and animalistic rage.

Sephiroth took its head off with one clean slice while Aeris rent its body to shreds with teeth and claws. Once more the remnants of the body began to knit themselves together again. This time it was back into his original form which he smiled scornfully at them. "Fools! You can't hope to defeat me! My body is one with Jenova, no matter how many times it is destroyed, it will reform! I'll kill you one way or another! I am immortal, I can not die!"

Before the validity of Hojo's words could be put to a true test, a fourth person joined the combat. Vincent Valentine descended down onto the platform like a bat out of hell, a most appropriate similarly as he currently had two huge bat like wings composed of shadow growing from his shoulder blades. He landed directly behind Hojo and spoke only a few choice words before acting. "Ah, but Dr. Hojo, you should know there are things so much worse then death!"

Vincent's maw opened to improbable proportions, like a snake unhinging its jaw. The chief difference however was that snakes only have two fangs, Vincent's entire mouth was lined with razor sharp implements of pointy mangling. He bit down hard on Hojo's neck and did not let go. After about a minute, he let go of the body and cast it down from the platform.

It was only the enhanced senses that both Sephiroth and Aeris possessed that let them see what happened to the body. It landed head first on the concrete streets, and the head was instantly smashed to a pulp. A moment later the entire body exploded into dust to be carried away by the wind.

Vincent took a moment to lick his lips while Aeris and Sephiroth watched what happened to the body, by the time they turned their attention to him he was ready to answer. "A body without a spark of life to inhabit it is like an empty metal can, much easier to crush than when it was filled with something."

Regardless of who they had been fighting Aeris (who shifted to human after seeing Hojo's body turn to dust) asked the question Sephiroth would not. "What happened to his spark of life?" Vincent beamed showing a mouth full of teeth that would rival Alex's. "Payback, pure and simple, Hojo is finally footing the bill for everything he's done."

----

Alex watched the tank pull away and shrugged. The others might find safety in that giant metal beast but he was just fine with his fur and fangs. So he kicked at the rubble and sighed. They would be coming back for him in half an hour. "So much time, so few honorable kills." A moment later a single figure emerged from Shinra HQ. He had blond hair and brown eyes and glared at Alex in surprise.

"What are you doing here?" Alex carefully examined the white jacket and black pants that the man was wearing, and smiled at the sight of them. "I've been waiting here for someone like you. You're Seraphim aren't you?" The man drew a set of spiked silver knuckles, slipping them on over his bare hands. "Harold, currently the fourth most powerful Seraphim. So who exactly are you?"

Alexander raised his hands and assumed a stance he had learned from Sephiroth. "Alexander Diamondclaw. The Garou who's going to be defeating you. Seeing how you once worked for my Alpha, I'll bring your broken and bleeding body to him to decide your fate." Harold stroked his silver knuckles and smiled. "Come and try it."

Alexander did. He charged right at Harold who took a jab at him with his right hand. However Alex countered by shifting his body, grabbing hold of Harold's shoulder, and then twisting around hurling him to the ground. "My Alpha taught me that." Harold pushed himself up off the ground. "Do I look like I'm really trying?" Alex shrugged and relaxed his stance slightly. "Do I look like I am?"

True to his word Alex simply took Harold's next punch to his chest from spiked silver fist. Well he didn't move in the slightest, but he did shift to Crinos. While Harold was extended with his strike, the werewolf dug his claws into the Seraphim's shoulder. "I learned this from a Black Fury I know." With that, he kneed his opponent in the crotch, then in the stomach, and finally in the forehead as he doubled over.

Finally, he removed his hands from his tormented foe's shoulders, though rather than simply pulling them free, he tore them out, leaving grievous wounds behind. As Harold fell back, Alex bit into his shin and leapt into the air, his opponent dangling from his jaws by a leg. Several stories up, he backflipped twice before disengaging his hold and planting his feet on his opponent's chest. With a triumphant snarl, he slammed the Seraphim against the ground and leapt off. Harold lay in a broken heap with half a dozen crushed ribs, a concussion, lacerated shoulders, and a broken shin. He wasn't dying, but he was clearly in no condition to keep fighting. "Ouch."

Alex shifted back to human. "Silver pains me, but everything is relative. You hurt me, but my Spiral Fang limit break broke you. I'd taunt you some more, but you appear to have passed out." Alex shrugged and ripped the dog tags from his opponent's neck as a trophy, then settled down on a piece of debris; there was nothing to do now except wait for his Alpha.

-----

The world was nothing but a swirling mist of shadow and crimson. Hojo tried to walk away from it, tried to run away, but nothing changed. The cries of the damned filled his ears, a figure in black, one of the failed clones tired to grasp onto his legs and Hojo barely avoided it.

He ran away from the being that was unable to match his stride, but what he ran into was even worse. A ghostly being came to life from the void, it was like the seeing a black and white negative image brought to life. A being so black that it was only possible to see where by where portions of the flowing crimson in Hojo's way was suddenly blocked from view.

Strands of night flew from its hands in an all too familiar fashion and Hojo's legs separated from his feet at the kneecap. The image vanished to wherever it had come from, leaving Hojo to die. But he wasn't, he felt pain coursing through his wounds, but his legs were not bleeding, that was impossible.

Another photonegative image came into being, like a shark drawn to the scent of the wounded. It looked over Hojo as he lay unable to run and spoke. It's voice sounded like the cackling of harpies, and before it departed it left fives blades apparently composed solely of shadow embedded in Hojo's back. If the blades were made only of shadow, they were no less effective (or painful) than the strands of night that the last image had attacked him with.

He lay there for a long time writhing in pain listening to the howling of wolves coming from nowhere and everywhere as he felt an "imaginary" pack circling him. One wolf, larger than the rest, stepped into the circle and turned into a stocky man wearing his long hair in a ponytail. He snarled at Hojo and kicked him in the face, sending him into an impromptu double backflip to land on his back. Through the blinding pain of the blades in his back being driven through his chest, Hojo was vaguely aware of the wolf rejoining the circle, as well as of booted footsteps. Finally, he heard voices speak to him. At that pointed he didn't care whose voices they were, anyone would be preferable to this, whatever it was! The moment he saw who had spoken and his mind told him what the words were, he revised that statement, however.

The words were "Having fun yet, Doctor?" spoken by Vincent Valentine, and he wasn't alone. What was Tseng doing just standing there? He should be helping Hojo, they both served Jenova, why wasn't he helping him or attacking Valentine? All too soon the answer was made evident for Hojo. Tseng pulled out a pistol, pulled out a clip, and loaded the gun.

Then he got down on his knees, chambered the first round into the gun, and pressed its barrel to Hojo's head. "You lied to me." BLAM! Hojo felt his agony increase tenfold, but somehow even after taking a bullet to the head he was neither losing consciousness (thus numbing the pain) dieing, or simply dead.

"That's because you are already dead Doctor. Of course your soul won't enter the Lifestream until I die, which won't be for a long time. You understand why, don't you? You made me what I am, what I do, blood is coin of the soul. Your Lifestream essence is now inside me, just like Tseng's." Tseng shot Hojo again after Vincent finished speaking.

Then Tseng kicked Hojo in the side, spinning his body around like a top. "You told me there was no price to pay for what you did to me, Doctor. You told me I was immortal. I'm not immortal, and neither are you, nor Valentine, but he is far, far closer then we are." Tseng shot Hojo a third time, this time in the chest.

"You used me Hojo, and Turks don't let anyone use them without making them pay. You expected me to fight Valentine and win, no human, enhanced or ordinary can fight him and win, humanity doesn't have that kind of power. Humanity can't fight a river of death! You sold me to the Styx Hojo, so I made a deal with Hades to get a return trip back up it."

Tseng paused to shoot Hojo again before continuing. "I'm just as much a prisoner here as you are Hojo, but I'm on much better terms with the warden. You should have told me that Vincent could take souls, and how he grows more powerful with each one he takes. He doesn't just run on blood, he runs on humanity." Tseng fired again not really caring which part of Hojo he hit.

"You sick bastard, you should have given me what you gave him! You turned him into a 'living' mako reactor! He sucks up a person's Lifestream essence through the blood and then he uses it to augment his own. How do you expect me to be able to fight something like that, how can even Jenova fight something like that? It's like trying to fight the will of the planet itself, except the Planet has a much better temperament then Valentine."

Tseng fired his last bullet into Hojo before tossing the gun at him. "That's why you didn't do this to me, you realized that he's so powerful you that you couldn't control or even destroy him. I hate to be overly dramatic Doctor, but 'YOU'VE CREATED A MONSTER!'" Hojo lay in pain barely able to gasp out his words.

"Fight him Tseng, for the sake of Jenova, fight him!" Tseng pulled out another gun, and another clip which he loaded into it and chambered a round. "It doesn't work like that Hojo. We're in Vincent's world now, for the rest of eternity he is your own personal god, and he can do anything he wants to, but like most gods he's a touch schizophrenic."

Vincent coughed loudly into his hand, and Tseng quickly amended his words. "By which I mean it's impossible for any human to understand exactly how a god thinks. How long a chain we get is determined by how much he feels we should have, so the more we give in to him, the longer our chains are. If we try to fight him, the leash gets shorter and shorter till he starts choking us with it, like he's doing to you. You saw those weird things, Vincent says they're soul fragments.

They're created whenever Vincent drinks a small amount of someone's blood when it's given to him willingly. The more willing the 'donor' and the more they give, the more representation they get in this world. If somebody let Vincent drain them dry then they would probably wind up giving Vincent's multiple personalities.

I resisted him, of course, so I can never hope to have anything like that, but I can make an eternity as enjoyable as possible. Of course because we're already dead we can never die, but that doesn't make the pain any less real. So like I said, it doesn't matter what my previous allegiances were, I only continue to exist as long as Vincent does, so I should make that as long as possible."

"Traitor!" Hojo wheezed the word out and Tseng shot him in the chest, aiming for where his lungs should have been. "Oh please! Do you think that word even means anything to me? I traded my honor to Shinra for gold, I gave up that gold and traded my soul to Jenova for power. Now I've lost my power, and the only chance I have for holding onto anything is by being a good prisoner. Spilling my guts isn't worth squat, Vincent can read our minds like open books, so actions speak much louder then words, like this."

Tseng shot Hojo again. "Don't look so surprised Hojo, haven't you heard that joke, Doctor? The one about the Turk who goes to hell? He ends up turning this giant spit with a demon whipping him for all eternity. As soon as he starts he tells the demon to go easy on the whip or he'll regret it. The demon laughs and whips him harder. A week later the demon is the turning spit and the Turk is doing the whipping. Apparently he impressed Satan so much that he got promoted to his boss's job.

That's how it is Hojo, I'm gonna bend over backwards to score brownie points with Vincent for every single perk I can get. You see, Vincent can manage his own internal affairs just fine, but he can always use somebody else to take care of things for him. So that's my job, I keep the other souls in line, make sure the coals are always hot whenever Vincent comes to 'visit' you, that's how it works.

So let me make this clear for you Hojo, you can look forward to getting screwed six ways from Sunday every day for the rest of eternity. Of course it's my job to take care of you most of the time, so you should feel honored when Vincent even pays attention to you. That's how it works, Vincent is god, I'm his prophet, and you're the poor, pathetic sinner who's going to burn for his crimes, understand?"

Tseng clearly wouldn't be able to help him, so Hojo appealed to Vincent. Big mistake. "Vincent, let's be reasonable about this!" Vincent scratched his chin for a moment, (he used his left hand now that he had it back) and spoke with a surprisingly whimsical voice. "Be reasonable? Me, be reasonable, how can I do that? You should know me Hojo, at best I'm a cold blooded killer. Right now, I'm sadistic monster who's waiting to inflict three decades worth of revenge. After all, what was it that you said about monsters and their creators?"

"Why are you doing this Vincent? It doesn't matter what you do, soon this entire world will be wiped out and only Jenova can save any of us! Don't tell me that pathetic slut's corpse is worth dieing for!" Vincent pulled out his own gun; its bullets were already loaded and he spoke very slowly.

"Worth dieing for?" Vincent shot Hojo, and the gun sounded like a thunderclap. It's impact felt a hundred times as painful as Tseng's shots had. "Worth killing for?" Vincent pulled the trigger again, Hojo's body was almost reduced to shreds by those shots. "Worth going to hell for?" Vincent fired a third time, and then finally returned his pistol to wherever it had come from. "I think so, and she wasn't even my wife. I think she'll agree with me."

A third negative photoimage suddenly came into being, and unlike the others, Hojo recognized who this one was. If what had been done to him up to now made him shriek with pain, this one did with terror.

End Chapter 34

FN: A quick request. While writing that fight between James and Reno I seem to have misplaced my tone, do any of you know where it is? But I guess that's cosmic irony for you, the two most comedic characters also get into (trust me) the most knock down drag out fight in the story.

Anyway props to the movies SWAT, Gross Point Blank, and the video game Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines for inspiring the manner of Rufus' death. The song line that Reno's "explosive cell" plays is from "Art of Losing" (something Reno has shown his mastery at throughout this fic) by American Hi Fi. Also if you couldn't penetrate Reno's unique view on language, the original phrase is the French "Ce la vie" or "That's life" his translation probably is suppose to mean "That's war" but actually comes out as gibberish.

Most of you probably missed a joke that probably would have required you to hear the words spoke to get it. So here it is spelled out for you, remember when Sephiroth was threatening the guards, imagine him saying "I'm General Sephiroth", followed immediately by "savvy?". Of course there were plenty of rejected introductions, here are a few...

Sephiroth: Do you know who I am? I'm Sephiroth!

(Buzzer from "Whose line is it anyway" sounds)

Sephiroth: (Random guard fires out of terror of looking at him and bullet blows some of his hair into his eyes) That's it, NOBODY MESSES WITH THE DO!

(Buzzer sounds)

Sephiroth: You're making me angry; you won't like me when I'm angry.

(Buzzer sounds)

Sephiroth: A man who would slaughter innocent, does the most evil of evil deeds with a price of 60,000,000,000 gil on his head, YES I AM THAT MAN!

(Buzzer sounds)

Sephiroth: You don't have guns, all you have are bullets, and the hope that when you run out of them, I am no longer standing. Because if I am, I'll kill every single one of you before you can reload.

(Buzzer sounds)

Sephiroth: Do you know who I am?

Guard: (Nods)

Sephiroth: Have you got any idea how many anonymous henchmen I've killed over the years?

Guard: (Nods again)

Sephiroth: I mean, look at you. You don't even have a name tag. You've got no chance. Why don't you just fall down?

(Guards all fall over)

Melkore: He's good.

(Buzzer)

Sephiroth: I'm Sephiroth!

Alex: I'm Sephiroth!

Mirri: I'm Sephiroth!

Aeris: I'm Sephiroth!

Melkore: I'm Sephiroth...

(Buzzer)

Sephiroth: Are you feeling lucky, punk?

(Buzzer)

Sephiroth: I'm not saying I'm God, I'm just saying I'm _a_ god.

(Buzzer)

Sephiroth: Of course you know, this means war.

(Buzzer)

Sephiroth: Valentine, Sephiroth, Valentine.

(Buzzer)

And of course

Sephiroth: Damn there are so many idiots whose asses I have to kick, I'll just have to start carrying a list just to keep track of them all!

So there you go.

Of course some you might have noticed that Sephiroth's actions directly afterward probably prompted this conversation...

Kefka: How dare you steal my best line?

Sephiroth: Screw off nutjob, I've got fangirls, one CGI movie, one animated movie, two secret boss cameos, and I will be damn surprised if I don't make an appearance in Dirge of Cerberus(**OWAN**: what a pity, eh?). Not to mention I've got this sweet hair, compared to me, you're just a sad, sad man who dresses like a clown for some reason.

Kefka: Well excuse me for only getting rendered in 16 bits!

I know what you're thinking: "hey I got gypped, where's my show stopping number?" Okay fine, this goes out to Sulphurya. While I see Rufus in more or less the same light Twilight Reno does, she writes him with a soft sensitive side underneath. Since Twilight clearly proves all things are possible, here's how thing might have gone down differently between chapters 32 and 33 in a universe we'll simply call Avenue R.

(Shot of Rufus sitting on desk with chin propped up on hands)

(Reno walks in)

Rufus: What now Reno?

Reno: I see your down boss, so I suggest you try one of these! (Pulls out a bottle of pills and shakes them) Fuckidol, Hojo made them. One of these boys and you'll be as close to well, this (Reno drags James in and shows him off) as humanly possible. Two and you'll be in a coma.

Rufus: You know this how?

Reno: Heh, crazy story, you see...

Rufus: Just get out.

(Reno pushes James aside)

(Music starts)

Reno: Rufus!

Rufus: Yeah?

Reno: Listen, buddy, nobody's seen you smile for two weeks. What's up with that?

Rufus: Well I can see everything I ever cared about crumbling down around me. Midgar is about to be wiped out like the Wutaian capital by Godzilla, terrorists have now officially been inside my office thanks to you, and I still haven't escaped my father's shadow even though he's dead!

(Shot of huge picture of President Shinra hanging above Reno)

Reno: All right. Get off your ass and stop angsting! The hedonistic f and s fest accompanying the Armageddon is gonna start soon!

Rufus: Have fun!

Reno: Hey, how can you not want to join in, the world only ends once! (Coughs for a moment, pulls out harmonica blows on it to get the right note and officially starts to sing) There is life outside of your office; I know it's hard to conceive. But there's life outside of your office, and you're only gonna see it if you leave. There is cool shit to do, but it can't come to you, and who knows, dude you might even score! There is life outside of your office, but you got to open the door!

Rufus: (Thumbs trapdoor button which opens to the left of where Reno is standing) No thanks, I'm staying in!

Reno: Don't tell me I gotta force you?

Rufus: (Pushes button and lead weight drops to the right of Reno) Sorry!

Reno: All right, everyone! He's resisting!

(Vincent and James come in at once Vincent grabs Rufus' chair (which has wheels))

All three: There is life outside... There is life outside... There is life outside... There is life outside of your office!

(Vincent wheels Rufus out of his office, builds up a good bit of momentum then takes his feet of the ground and rides Rufus' chair with Rufus still in it into a freshly opened elevator door)

(When door opens again on the ground floor the two go sailing out Shinra HQ's front door with Reno and James waiting)

James: (Looking at a piece of roadkill) There's a pigeon squashed on the street.

(James takes a quick lick to taste the flavor)

Rufus: Ew.

Vincent: There's a girl passing by

Reno: No I think it's a guy

(Rufus is not impressed)

(Later in Sector Six)

Reno: And a homeless man, who only wants to buy something to eat!

Reno and Vincent: Sorry, can't help you.

Vincent: We could go to the zoo!

Reno: Find some girls to screw...

James: We could just sit around smoking nip...

(Sees other's faces)

James: Or not...

All three: There is life outside of your office.

Rufus: (Sigh) Well, I guess I'll give it a shot.

(Randomly fired bullet flies out of nearby window and Reno, James and Vincent throw themselves to the ground for a moment)

James, Vincent and Reno: There is life outside of your office.

Rufus: I know...

James, Vincent and Reno: There is life outside of your office.

Random girl: I'm gonna jump!

James: Don't do it!

Random girl: Okay! (Steps back from the edge)

All four: There is cool shit to do, but it can't come to you. So come on...

(Don Corneo drives by in bright purple stretch limo)

Don Corneo: Get out of the way asshole!

Rufus: F you!

All four: There is life outside your apartment. Oh you never know what's around the bend.

Vincent: You could win the lotto.

James: Or make a friend...

(Group comes upon random harlot_probably_ not Scarlet who blows kiss at Rufus)

Reno: Take her home to see your office!

Random Harlot: Do you wanna feel special? I can see that you do. Well, I can make you feel special, if you let me feel you.

Reno and Vincent: She'll feel you!

Random Harlot: Where's your pad?

Rufus: Not too far.

James: We could call you a car.

Rufus: We'll be fine, thank you! See ya!

Reno (Gives Rufus a congratulatory handshake while secretly passing him a prophylactic): Hope you don't get gonorrhea!

James, Reno and Vincent: There is life outside your apartment.

Rufus and Random Harlot: But now it's time to go home.

James and Vincent: Yeah it's time to go home..

Reno: For porn!

Well that was a totally pointless adaptation of "There is Life Outside Your Apartment" from Avenue Q. Of course I'm sure that some of you familiar with actual show stopping numbers will say "But James that was just a playful ditty", fine here's a real show stopping number.

(Sephiroth (with hair styled so that it covers the right side of his face walks up to a piano on the front deck of the Valar, he stretches his fingers and cracks them then sits down)

Sephiroth: (Runs hands across piano playing every key and then takes proper piano playing position) They say there's a broken light for every heart in Midgar. They say that life's a game then they take the board away. They give you mask and costumes and outline of the story, then leave all to improvise their vicious cabaret!

(Sephiroth picks up a script that says "Twilight Perfection" By James Firecat and flips through it and casually "red pens" several sections by running a line of flame through them before tossing the script away)

Sephiroth: In no longer pretty cities there's a man with the mind of a kitty, but he's in no need of your pity, for he lives life without a care.

(Cut to James, Vincent and Niro watching through James' portable TV and applauding)

Sephiroth: There's a girl from a town that's been burnt to ash, who desires more than simple cash, she fights bravely for a forgotten past, but who said life was fair?

(Mirri, Melkore, Aeris, and Alex standing behind him applaud but Sephiroth continues)

Sephiroth: Facing such horrendous odds but then what is there to lose, when humanity itself seems to slip back into the primordial ooze, and no where to which we can run anyway. In the details you'll find the devil but also in the blood of all those who meddle and refuse to simply settle for being extras in this vicious cabaret!

(Two male Seraphim behind Sephiroth form a less than impressive chorus line and go from one side of the screen to the other)

Sephiroth: At last the 777 show! The ballet on the burning stage! The documentary seen, upon the fractured screen! The dreadful poem scrawled, upon the crumpled page! There's a Turk with a less than honest soul, who'd stay home from work without a cold, for when it comes to being bold it surely isn't he.

(Reno is listening with walkman and nods along with music while pretending to listen to Rufus talk to him)

Sephiroth: A vampire with a master plan, who would see his lover live again, for any other way he can not stand the pain, so he'll gladly pay the fee.

(Mirri does a cheerleading routine while swearing under her breath)

Sephiroth: The city's ruler in the dark nearby inspects his hands with brutal eye, that have never brushed a lover's thigh but have squeezed a nation's throat! He hungers in his secret dreams for the harsh embrace of cruel machines, but his lover is not what she seems and will not leave a note!

(Shot of Rufus looking at the tank Jenova was held in)

Sephiroth: At least the 777 show! The situation, tragedy! Grand opera, slick with soap, cliff hangers with no hope!

(Melkore picks up a violin and plays along with moderate proficiency)

Sephiroth: The water color in the flooded gallery. There's a girl who'll push but will not shove and who would like to feel a father's love, she believes that hand beneath the glove may be the one she needs to hold! Though she has lycanthropic tendencies, as a lamb she'd be more at ease, but in the end she wants to be free, so she'll grow a coat against the cold!

(Aeris blushes)

Sephiroth: But the backdrops peel and the sets give way and the cast gets eaten by the play. There's a murderer at the matinee there are dead men in the aisles! And the patrons and the actors too are uncertain if the show is through and with sidelong looks await the cue, but the frozen mask just smiles!

(Niro's face is show with his lips slightly arching upwards)

Sephiroth: At last the 777 show! The trochsong no one ever sings! The curfew chorus line! The comedy divine!

(Melkore holds up sign saying "Coincidence, you decide!")

Sephiroth: The bulging eyes of puppets, strangled by their strings!

(Mirri pulls out a puppeteer set and a Cloud Strife puppet which she proceeds to wrap the strings around its throat)

Sephiroth: There's thrills and chills and kills galore, there's ambushes and surprises! There's something here for everyone, reserve your seat today! There's SOLDIERS and renegades and of course people who'd kill for pay, within this bastard's carnival, THIS VICIOUS CABARET!

(Sephiroth plays one final note and suddenly all of the Mako Reactors explode)

FN yet again: If you want a number more show stopping than that, your standards are too high. The original form of "Vicious Cabaret" is from the comic book version of V for Vendetta by Alan Moore and David Lloyd.

OWAN: If you want to know how it sounds, there are at least two entries on youtube.


	34. Chapter 34

Chapter 34: This is the voice of silence no more!

Getting out of Midgar was easy. The group drove the tank James and Reno had "liberated" from Shinra, right through a checkpoint. Something about having a tank turret pointed in the guard's face persuaded them not to question whatever the hell was going on. It was even easier to get the Valar to pick them up afterwards. They left the tank with Reno.

A few last, well chosen words were exchanged at this time. "Mirri, all the best. For the rest of you, especially Firecat, I can tell you're sure as hell not incompetent, so go kick the a or whatever you call the excretory organs of whoever is doing this!" There were two important responses that didn't get said to Reno's parting words to the Seraphim. One of them was by Melkore who knew drama when he saw it, didn't bother to state out loud that the organ in question was part of the digestive and not excretory system.

The other was by Sephiroth who didn't add a "wish we could say the same about you" because when he added it all up mentally, Reno wasn't. He wasn't exactly good at his job, he was a drunk and a lecher, but much to Sephiroth's surprise it was now doubtlessly clear that Reno was apparently going to survive, as much as anyone survived what came next.

It was a shocking realization to know that Reno was going to survive what had killed off Zack, two Shinra presidents, Dr. Simon Hojo, an entire town, Jace, almost all of the Shinra board of directors, Tseng, countless other guards and SOLDIERS who's names Sephiroth didn't wish to remember, and was going to conclude with the death of either Jenova, whose age was beyond measure, or himself. What kind of Planet was this that let someone like Reno survive?

Sephiroth didn't have to ponder that question long however, it all made sense once Reno closed the tanks hatch and vanished from view. Sephiroth was forcibly reminded of a huge metal cockroach, and then he understood the meaning of the word 'epiphany' like never before. There was no doubt, this would end with Jenova's death; it was a matter of function.

Reno was suited to survival, which was why he was still alive, he was the humanoid equivalent of a cockroach, and Sephiroth knew all about cockroaches. Hojo had done some studies on them that Sephiroth had been unable to avoid watching at the time. They were about as hard to kill as Jenova beings. Cut off their heads, jolt them full of electricity, hold them underwater, unless you simply crushed them flat, they simply refused to die. That was why Reno was alive.

Zack and Jace were fighters, and fighters died when they met somebody better then them, that would most likely be how Sephiroth died as well. But Reno was a survivor, the day he died would be the day that he met somebody better than him who truly wanted to kill him, and happened to be a faster runner than him, not to mention knowing more about dirty fighting. Even then Reno might not die: he might have something to help him run away, like a helicopter

It was all a matter of function. The day that Jenova died would be the day that someone stood up to her, and refused to play her games any more, and broke the table across her head. Sephiroth would enjoy seeing the look on her face when his king moved all the way across the board.

----

This was it. The 7 of them turned to look at him as he stood next to the Valar's wheel. James with his bright red eyes unsure of what would come next. Mirri with her mischievous green, her malice far from completely spent. Aeris with her emerald green, she smiled at Sephiroth, smiled because she had conquered the wolf, no become friends with it, made peace with her demon.

Alexander with his golden eyes, not an ounce of hesitation. Niro, behind dark glasses and eyes that would never fixate on any one color. Vincent, his father, blood red eyes, deep red unlike James', red eyes that had seen much, but where ready to see more. Melkore with his blue eyes, guitar strapped across his chest, ready for one (and preferably only one) more wild ride. Sephiroth drew in a breath and began.

"Gentlemen... I love war. On the plains, in the streets, in the trenches, on the prairies, on the tundra, in the desert, on the sea, in the sky, in the mud, in the swamp. I cherish each and every war that will be raged on this world.

I love the thunderous roar of artillery blasting away at my foes. I love it when a cannon slug tears through armor and into our opponent's very hearts. I love it when my men overcome their foes and bring them down. I get a warm in feeling in my heart as I think of the look in my foe's eyes, as his screams match perfectly with the shriek of the gun that mows him down.

I remember distinctly the several ton pieces of shrapnel hurled from the wreckage of once mighty weapons. I love to see my foes disorganised as my men slip past them like wraiths in the night towards the places they should have defended. I love seeing my foe's war machines crushed and annihilated. Seeing their men slink around on the ground like vermin.

Gentlemen, this has been a great war, an empire has been conquered, a war greater then any other to come or that has come, but it is not enough for me. I wish to see a war worthy of one between the followers of Lucifer. My Seraphim who follow me into battle, what do you wish for? You wish for war, as a matter of course? Do you want to see a merciless war in the depths of the inferno?

Do you wish a final war which rocks the foundations of the planet to its core, signaling our victory? We have come this far, won this war against Shinra, but that is not enough for me. Is enough for you? Tell me what you want."

There was no hesitation in the seven voices that answered him. Seven voices that became one voice, it had no sex, it had no race, it had no species, it had no age, it had no language, one universal voice rang in Sephiroth's ears. A universal language that bridged all gaps of intelligence, upbringing or body, but in the end, it was a simple thing. It was a declaration of equality, a declaration that the strong would survive and the weak would fall. A declaration that they were once and again would be animals.

"WAR!"

Sephiroth raised his hands, it was funny how you learned so much more from the people you hated than the ones you liked. "Very well, on the seventh day, now that man ("And woman" Mirri added) had been created while the Lord paid no attention and rested, humanity said 'Let there be war, and there was!' All our strength is held in a clenched fist, poised to strike! We who have, for time beyond any of our years, been menaced by a force not of our own, I say: no more! A normal war, simple or great is no longer enough! AN APOCALYPTIC WAR!

A war such that there will never again be another war! A war born of our single hearted devotion! We may be but 8 beings, but we are all matchless hardened veterans, in my eyes we are an army 800,000 strong! So gentlemen, the herald of destruction hangs in the, sky no one can change that. Is it our destruction, the destruction of this planet and those who cherish it? NO!

The hour has finally come for when Jenova, who has been a plague on this planet since her arrival, shall be dealt with. She lies slumbering in the center of the planet seeping her foul poisons. She is not afraid of us; she thinks that even when at the height of her strength she could defeat the Cetra or the humans.

Shinra, the only human empire to oppose her has already fallen by our hand, we are more than them. We are not humans, Cetra, Vampires, or any other words for race, we are Seraphim! We are angels, and we will hurl down Jenova as the Lord hurled down Lucifer!

We shall rouse her from her sleep, she who once drove us into the realm of forgetfulness! Let us drag her screaming from her dreams of control and force her eyes to witness the flaming ruins she 'controls'! We shall teach her the taste of terror! We shall make her fear the sound of our boots as we march into the depths of hell with no regret in our hearts or souls!

We shall remind her that something in the interval between and Cetra and humans, something she doesn't even recall with her deepest memory, does indeed exist. With seven Seraphim at my back I will lead the way down into the hell she has built to defend herself from the real world. As of 0800 hours tomorrow morning, Operation Divine Comedy is go. Till then, you can depart for wherever you wish. Go home to you loved ones, your family, your friends, whoever you chose. Melkore will take you wherever you wish, and expect to be picked up around 0700 hours tomorrow. You know your orders, I know your hearts, tomorrow Jenova shall know defeat. "

There was a pause, none of them had expected that and Sephiroth went on. "We will rest for a day, to prepare, and to most of all remember, or even simply learn what we are fighting for. None of you forget, until we destroy Jenova, nothing on this world is safe. Be glad we're fighting, because there's no one else besides us."

There was another silence after that statement, but he could tell that they now understood. He silently bet with himself wondering if it would be James or Melkore who spoke first, Melkore won.

"Okay then folks, nothing more to see here, I'll take your ticket stubs and you name the station. You don't have to go home but you can't stay here, oh yeah, since we're going to kill tomorrow you can't get drunk tonight. But feel free to get laid because I know that our General's going to be driving something long and hard into somebody's flesh tonight!" Sephiroth flashed him a glare that as much as told him that it wasn't too late for the night's plans to include Masamune in his chest.

----

"Hey Melkore, I have an idea. Put the Valar in hover while I explain it to you." Melkore did so out of his natural desire to prolong his life, you didn't reject Mirri without even hearing what she had to say. After all it might be a fun idea, granted since James was standing in his usual position at her left the odds of that were low. "What's the idea?" Mirri rubbed her hands together in a way that would have done most archvillains proud.

"Simple, Shinra as we know it is destroyed. It's time for a new power to rise in the world." "Mirri are you trying to work the "getting the launch codes to Shinra's mako missiles" bit? Cause I've worked that one from every angle and it couldn't be done then and can't today. Even if you could get past the laser fence you would still have to open the magnetically locked door, which is impossible without the right set of retinas to be scanned!" Apparently, Mirri wasn't that easy to dismiss. "No, Melkore, we're not striking Midgar. Midgar's day in the sun is over. My target is the Gold Saucer."

"Gold Saucer? You want to hold up the Gold Saucer?" Part of Melkore was surprised that Mirri wasn't currently sitting in a chair, stroking James behind the ears, and that James wasn't wearing a diamond collar, or at least a pair of armbands. "Yes and no. We're not holding them up for money, we're holding them up for something more important, prestige." "How do you hold someone up for prestige? Are we going to make them drop their pants in public or something?"

In Melkore's mind, prestige was an indefinable thing. Thus it couldn't really be stolen from someone, even at gun point. Then Mirri explained her plan. Melkore was critical to it, because only he could provide the supplies they needed. He listened, rubbed his chin, and shrugged. "You realize that this is insane, right?" "They said it was insane to believe you could break into the central bank of Midgar, but Auric Goldfinger proved them wrong!" When Mirri had a point, she had a point. Melkore put the Valar in gear with its new heading.

------

"Hey Niro do you have any plans?" It must have been some kind of ingrained defense mechanism because Niro instantly wanted to turn into a rat and scurry from the room. The way Mirri was smiling meant nothing good for the world in general could be about to happen. "Niro, how would you like to be the most famous unknown person in the world?

-----

"Aeris I'm calling in a solid 'you owe me' so don't disregard what I'm about to say out of hand."

------

"Vincent, I have an idea." Vincent checked the sun, like a normal person would check his watch. He had drank the blood last night, it would still be good in him till sunset of the day after today. That was plenty of time considering he may not live that long. If he left now to put his plans into action he might have time for her to wake up before he left. If that happened, and if she wasn't instantly repulsed at the idea... "Creatures of the night what music they make" would be the most decent way of putting that.

The problem ("Problem? What problem?" part of Vincent's brain shrieked indignantly) with that was that if she _was _repulsed, it would sap Vincent's desire to survive and win. On the other hand if he waited, then he would be fighting for her, and for the chance too be with her, that was a powerful incentive. So with the self restraint that had never left him, Vincent decided he would wait.

Mirri's idea, whatever it was, couldn't be that bad a way to kill time. Besides, the way James was smiling made things very clear, once he got an idea into his head (usually because Mirri put it there) it didn't matter if he had those big ass feline ears, he couldn't hear anything else.

----

"Alex, I have an interesting idea." What Black Furies considered "interesting" could be anywhere from highly entertaining to utterly suicidal. Of course, a proper Get of Fenris could survive even the most "interesting" of ideas. "Alex, how would you like a chance to do something that the world will be remembering for the rest of its lifespan?" /Which all things considered might be not be so long.\

It was hard to put out a Black Fury when she was nurturing an idea, they took far more pride in them than in their cubs at some times. "True, but you know the saying, get what you can while the getting is good." /Quite so, guzzle down the kill before someone else tries to get what isn't theirs.\ That smile could give lesser men (or Garou) nightmares. "Exactly, we've made the kill. Now it's time to get what's coming to us."

---------

"Sephiroth, I have an idea." The sound that came from Sephiroth's throat was a mixture of resignation and fear. "What is it Mirri?" Mirri's response was a frightening cross between a girlish giggle and a maniacal laugh. "Well you see, I've come up with this idea, and all the other's are ready to run with it, I just wanted to see if you're interested." "What does all this have to do with why we're landing at Rocket Town?"

"We're picking up supplies, General. You won't win if you treat something this important as an offhand thing. It's the 6P's of combat that I believe you taught me. Proper Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance." "Well now I'm too pleased you remembered to be mad- you were counting on that, weren't you…"

"That's not all I remember that you taught me sir." The look in Mirri's eyes told Sephiroth that he wasn't going to be quite as happy about what came out of her voice box next. "Just remember Aeris when I say this, 'when you can't run anymore, you

crawl and when you can't do that...'" Sephiroth finished the quotation before Mirri could. "You find someone to carry you, yes I know Mirri. Which of course once again brings us back to our traditional relationship with each other: you getting laughs and enjoyment out of being near me, and me feeling annoyed at you, but still finding you too useful to kill." "If it ain't broke don't fix it sir."

--------

The group entered the Gold Saucer, attracting quite a bit of attention. Vincent and Sephiroth stood head and shoulders above most people. Not to mention the fact that most members of the group were carrying large black packages. The Gold Saucer didn't have a security system for making people remove their weapons, so no one bothered to check what was in those packages.

Either that or no one wanted to get in the way of the group which was moving with all the precision of a military unit as they marched to a silent drum beat. "Left, left, left-right, right, left." Thus did they advance, Mirri leading the way.

---------

They came to a stop before the booth, and Mirri unstrapped her black package and handed it to James. Then she calmly raised her right fist at the receptionist behind the glass that she was willing to bet wasn't bulletproof. "Hi, we're, scheduled to play here tonight. Don't bother checking the records, it's a last minute thing, between me and my claws." As Mirri spoke, her right glove instantly sprouted blades. "Mirri..."

The receptionist might have been someone who Mirri grew up with and didn't remember, or she might just have seen one of the numerous reports concerning her as the second most dangerous criminal in the world after Sephiroth. To help allay the woman's fears, James offered his own brand of attempted condolence. "Don't worry. Shinra doesn't exist any more. That means we're not terrorists, we're musicians!" The full absurdity of the situation struck them all at that point, but surprisingly, none of them laughed.

"I'd suggest you give us whatever we ask for no matter how strange it sounds. If you haven't already heard, Midgar just got reduced from a giant heaping pile of slime, to a giant gaping, smoking hole full of slime. The entire Shinra organization is going to hell, and things are gonna get worse before they get better. Not that I'm suggesting you start giving any band of armed yahoo's whatever they want. You need to start making friends who will enforce the law. From my point of view you have two choices.

You can be a hero, and tell us 'no' with all the risk it entails both in the present and the future. Or you can leave the hero work to us, say 'yes' and make friends. If you do that I promise if anyone ever tries anything like this again I'll come here from the other side of the world to put a stop to it. But then I won't have to, because I'll be moving into Corel as soon as all this is over. So let's hear the right answer." They heard it.

-----------

Unlike most 'robberies' there was nothing truly urgent about it. They took their time setting up, and if the people who had been scheduled had a problem with them, they decided not to voice it. Black cases were opened, instruments were produced. As it turned out, James was fairly good with a keyboard (actually Melkore had told him it was part of his gene code) so he set his instrument up while the rest of the group connected a few extra speakers to the square's sound system.

With a small device that looked like an ordinary laptop which Niro had picked up for him in the Shinra building Melkore got to work. The device was actually a universal terminal, and with the right set up it could allow him to control just about anything mechanical. Using it to make him the ultimate DJ was probably not the intended purpose, but Melkore didn't care. After a few moments of playing around (Melkore called it "testing") with the controls he managed to get a hang for the lights, sounds, and other things in the event square area.

Alex was energetic enough when it came to the set of drums they had brought with them, and what he might have lacked in technical skill, he made up for with sheer volume of noise generated. With the exception of Melkore, it was a hastily gathered together band of people playing whatever instruments they could scavenge from what they could find in Melkore's basement (the only part of the house left truly intact) and there were countless ways that the whole venture could go wrong. Or, as James noted, it was the perfect metaphor for what they had been doing all along, why change it now?

Microphones where adjusted to the correct height, instruments tuned, and lyrics distributed. All this was done with the general silence but over all exuberance of practiced veterans getting ready for war. In the end, however slap dash and haphazard the plan, it seemed to be coming off wonderfully well, more or less. The "less" became obvious as they where about to kick off the "operation" in earnest.

"We need a name." Sephiroth cast a questioning glare at Mirri, one that summed up his entire thoughts about all of this. "We're Seraphim, there isn't anything more to it." James who was busily deciding whether he should play with his gloves on or off looked up with interest. "Well, as we pointed out, Shinra doesn't exist any more. So we really can't carry over our name now that Shinra is gone."

Melkore was currently seeing if he could get the normal equipment to produce a strobe light by setting them to flick on an off at incredibly rapid speeds. This of course was causing quite a few irritated glances to get cast in his direction. He left the lights on as the argument started so he could take part in it.

"I'm with James and Mirri, Sephiroth. "Seraphim" is fine for a military or para-military group, but for a band we need something flashy. Like, Satan's Night In." The example was instantly voted down, though the idea gained strength. Several new ideas came up, and came down. The final decision that was agreed upon was an amalgamation of various ideas that had come before.

----

It was child's play for Melkore to gain access to the Gold Saucer's communication system. His voice echoed out through all the various areas of the massive construction, like spreading light to the darkest corners of the world. (Or so he liked to think in this situation.) "It is the extreme pleasure of the Cats of War to present our special, one time musical offer. For absolutely no to cost to you, if you're hearing this, you can witness our first and in all probability last, 'It's the end of the world and I'm divine' performance in the event square starting in exactly 10 minutes.

I suggest you attend because you can't have a rapture without a host of sinners for God to smite. Thanks for listening." Melkore stopped talking for just a moment and cut the connection. Then with sudden abruptness (which he had planned from the start) he turned it back on. "Oh, by the way, the first number will be by former Shinra General, Sephiroth Valentine. Come for the music, stay for the sin."

The gasps of surprise from countless throats was music to Melkore's ears. He removed himself from the communication's net and turned to his partners. "You know, I love this thing so much that I would f its CD ROM drive if it was only a bit bigger." "TMI Melkore, Too Much Information" "Hey Mirri, do I harp on you because of how you like James? I mean sure he's got to be a panther in the sack and he probably could do neat stuff with his tail, but..."

Melkore never finished his comment. He looked up and found Mirri standing over him determined to inflict bodily harm. "Please Mirri! This is my one chance to attract groupies whose life goal is to please my every desire! Whatever you do NOT THE FACE! NOT THE VOCAL CHORDS! NOT THE HANDS!" "How would you like to be singing soprano tonight, Melkore?" "That's fine!" WHAM! Melkore's world was pain, but he had ten minutes to shake it off, that was plenty of time! The siren call of the groupie awaited him with all it's tantalizing opportunities.

----

The Event Square had been appropriately packed by Melkore's announcement. All the lights were set to dim, and the stage was blocked by a curtain. Regardless of injuries, Melkore was able to perform as expected. At the appointed time, it started. The dim lights vanished into blackness as the curtain parted and Sephiroth stepped out. The lights instantly turned themselves back, on forcing Sephiroth to blink in pain for a few moments. For a few more moments after that he just looked out at all of the people who had come. The man who had killed countless people in battle, and had ordered entire towns wiped from the face of the earth, looked unsure.

Then he took a deep breath and got over it, music started and he began to sing. "Dry your eyes and quietly bear this pain with pride. For heaven shall remember the silent and the brave. And promise me, they will never see, the fear within our eyes. We will give strength to those who still remain.

So bury fear, for fate draws near and hide the signs of pain. With noble acts, the bravest souls, endure the heart's remains. Discard regret, that in this debt, a better world is made. That children of a newer day might remember and avoid our fate.

And in the fury of this darkest hour, we will be your light. You've asked me for my sacrifice, and I am Winterborn. Without denying, a faith is come that I have never known, I hear the angels call my name, and I am Winterborn

Hold your head up high, for there is no greater love! Think of the faces of the people you defend. And promise me, they will never see the tears within our eyes. Although we are men, with mortal sins, angels never cry.

So bury fear, for fate draws near and hide the signs of pain. With noble acts, the bravest souls endure the heart's remains. Discard regret, that in this debt, a better world is made. That children of a newer day might remember, and avoid our fate. Prepare for battle!

And in the fury of this darkest hour, we will be your light. You've asked me for my sacrifice and I am Winterborn. Without denying, a faith in God, that I have never known. I hear the angels call my name, and I am Winterborn

And in the fury of this darkest hour, I will be your light. A lifetime for this destiny, for I am Winterborn. And in this moment..I will not run, it is my place to stand! We few shall carry hope, within our bloodied hands. And in our fighting, we're more alive, than we have ever been! I've lived for these few seconds, for I am Winterborn.

And in the fury of this darkest hour, we will be the light. You've asked me for my sacrifice, and I am Winterborn, without denying, a faith in man that I have never known, I hear the angels call my name and I am Winterborn.

Within this moment I am for you, though better men have failed. I would give my life for love, for I am Winterborn. And in my fighting I'm more alive than I have ever been; I will make this sacrifice for I am Winterborn."

Sephiroth struck a dramatic pose and stayed that way taking a moment to just feel the vibrations running through the ground from all the people cheering. "Thank you, thank you. I suppose I owe you some kind of explanation." Sephiroth didn't have the microphone on at the moment he didn't need it. "Well to start with five years ago I decided that it would be wise to spend a few years dead for tax purposes. Beyond that, it gets a little bit more complicated. But there's only one thing that you truly need to know, reports of my demise have been greatly exaggerated." After Sephiroth spoke those words the music started and he began to sing with new music that was much faster than his last song.

"So please don't ask me how I ended up at my wits end and breaking down. Pages torn from books we never read, because we're plugged into this grid. Don't pull this plug right now or then we'd really have to live!"

------------------------------

Sephiroth tossed a book to the ground. Curiosity didn't kill the cat, it simply pointed the cat at the biggest dog the cat had ever seen, and told the cat that the dog had killed his parents. It wasn't just damning of Hojo, it was damning of the President as well.

Sephiroth had always thought the man had liked him, but he had sat idly by while Shinra had done what they did to him. Beat him, smashed him, cut him apart till he would fit into the place they wanted him to fit, like a mangled puzzle piece. They had broken his empathy, broken his soul, he couldn't feel what others felt, he couldn't even feel the anger he felt for them.

Every nerve in his body was cut, he couldn't feel anything.

------------------------------

"When I die, will they remember not what I did, but what I haven't done? It's not the end that I fear with each breath: it's life that scares me to death!"

------------------------------

Sephiroth lay back on the bed; it was moderately comfortable. The room was on the second floor of the inn, the door was closed and the window shut. He wondered how many days, weeks, maybe even years since he had slept alone inside. He tossed and turned on the bed, it shouldn't be like this.

It hadn't been like this in Mirri's house, that place had only had one door, and from the floor you could see the whole house. In this one room, lights out in the hallways, it was all too small.

He tapped his fingers along Masamune's hilt, but it wasn't enough; he was tired, and he just didn't have time for this kind of thing. He got out of bed, walked over to the window, and opened it. Then he calmly and deftly slid out the window and dropped gracefully to the ground. It didn't take him long to find a suitable tree, one with branches strong and wide enough to suit him. He pulled himself up its limbs, looked up at the clear endless sky filled with twinkling lights. Now he could finally fall asleep.

------------------------------

"When we build these dreams on sand, how they all slip through our hands, this

might be our only chance."

------------------------------

Dr. Julius Gaste, a man who had only wanted to make the world a better place, died a death as violent as it was quick and hopefully painless. The bullet slammed through his skull, through his brain and out the other side.

------------------------------

"Let's take this one day at a time, I'll hold your hand if you hold mine! It's the time that we kill that keeps us alive."

------------------------------

From there on in it was only a matter of time till what came about came about. James lacked the instinctively deceptive frame of mind that Mirri used to make herself so proficient at the game, but he made up for it with skill and speed. Between the two of them they managed to get an enjoyable game of Frisbee going, and Aeris even took part in it for a while.

------------------------------

"Your words won't save me now, I'm at the edge feeling the sweat drip from my

brow. Get a grip on yourself is what they say, every hour every day. Hands over my ears

I've been screaming all these years."

------------------------------

"So I just drifted in a meaningless, empty life, from one day to another. Each day Jenova's voice got worse because I wasn't drowning its desire for death by killing people in battle.

I kept training, because it was the closest I could come to being able to kill. Day after day, night after night, endless unsated bloodlust. I spent as little time as possible with people because whenever I talked with someone, in the corner of my mind I saw all the possible ways I could kill them."

------------------------------

"When I die, will they remember not what I did, but what I haven't done? It's not the end that I fear with each breath: it's life that scares me to death!"

------------------------------

Sephiroth stared up the machines whose rapidly increasing sparks clearly showed it would soon be exploding. "Go ahead and do your worst you tin bastard. I'll get Masamune out of you if I have to reduce you to scrap metal with my bare hands." The explosion ripped the catwalk to shreds.

------------------------------

"When we build these dreams on sand, how they all slip through our hands."

------------------------------

She raised her left hand at fired at where Rufus' Shinra should have been, but from the sound of metal blades into metal ship, she missed. Then Dark Nation's headless corpse hit her, and the transfer of momentum sent her sprawling. She fell to the ground, using her right hand to slice Dark Nation's body apart down the middle. The beast's body fell away from her and she fired her right hand glove's blades at where Rufus should have been, and missed again.

She loaded new blades into her gloves, but before she could use them she felt something hard and metallic slam across the back of her head

------------------------------

"This might be our only chance! Let's take this one day at a time, I'll hold your hand if you hold mine, it's the time that we kill that keeps us alive."

------------------------------

"I can't believe I'm doing this." "Oh, come on Sephiroth, you have to remember to smile." "The last time I had my picture taken intentionally, I was standing right here, and now the man who took the picture, and everyone else in the picture besides me, is now dead, or worse. That sets a lovely precedent, doesn't it?"

------------------------------

"We came in search of answers, we left empty handed again. Shots fired into the

sky, are now returning, where exactly will you hide?"

------------------------------

Aeris felt fear in her heart for a moment. "When will that be, Sephiroth? Meteor is in the sky, we need your help if we're going to think of any way to defeat Jenova!"

------------------------------

"Hiding from the laughter in the closet of our lives, but the door hinges are

squeaking letting in thin shards of light. And now a hand's extending outward, quiet

comfort they invite, do we dare take what they offer, do we step into the light?"

------------------------------

The girl looked him up and down, as if suddenly finding something in him that she hadn't seen or even expected before. "Excuse me. I'm Aeris Gainsborough, I sell flowers for a living. You are?" Sephiroth took a moment to do some mental calculations about how he could get back to sector seven from sector five without using a train. Eventually however he got around to answering Aeris' question. "I'm General Sephiroth, formerly of Shinra."

It was one of those moments where people were less likely to believe the truth than any lie. Aeris could believe whatever she wanted to, Sephiroth was going to walk out of this church, and the Planet help whoever got in his way.

------------------------------

"When I die will they remember not what I did, but what I haven't done? It's not

the end that I fear with each breath: it's life that scares me to death!"

------------------------------

Sephiroth terminated the feed and Vincent picked up the small device. He walked out, and handed it back to James. Then he drew another breath. Compared to what he'd just been through, attacking Shinra HQ would be easy.

------------------------------

"When we build these dreams on sand, how they all slip through our hands! And this might be our only chance!"

------------------------------

"So I lost." It was an understatement if ever there was one. Vincent's entire body was filled with pain as never before. He had never been captured in combat, but he doubted any kind of torture most savage tribes might deliver to him could have compared with the pain he was now in. Which made sense, it was only by perfecting civilization that things like killing and pain could be perfected.

------------------------------

"Let's take this one day at a time. I'll hold your hand if you hold mine. The time

that we kill keeps us alive."

------------------------------

Then he turned to the mother and daughter. "Follow me as best as you can. But I make no promises about getting you out of this alive."

------------------------------

"When we build these dreams on sand, how they all slip through our hands. And this might be our only chance! Let's take this one day at a time. I'll hold your hand if you hold mine. It's the times that we kill that keep us alive!"

------------------------------

Sephiroth held onto the plane for all he was worth and held onto Aeris for all she was. He was not about to let her die so easily! 'Her'? Where did 'her' come from? Sephiroth was momentarily disconcerted, before deciding that it was a simple slip of thought. She was one of his soldiers, that's all, and he never lost a soldier if he could help it.

------------------------------

This music stopped as well and Sephiroth got out of the way as Aeris stepped through the curtain, she was not standing on center stage any more then Sephiroth, but Melkore's spot light cast all eyes on her. She took a deep breath and forced all fear from her mind and body. "This is for all the people who got me where I am today." The bright spotlight she stood in dwindled even before the music started. "This bloody road remains a mystery..."

As Aeris said those words Melkore gleefully played with his new toy casting a different sort of red carpet before Aeris. It even wavered in the right way to make it look like it was blood. "This sudden darkness fills the air..." Lights shut off till all the illumination came from the red path before Aeris. She looked at it hesitantly for a moment, and then without a backwards glance stepped onto it.

"What are we waiting for? Won't anybody help us? What are we waiting for? We can't afford to be innocent! Stand up and face the enemy! It's a do or die situation, we will be invincible!" Aeris stood up straighter, and seemed to (or with a little creative shifting possibly did) grow a little taller, as she walked deeper into that red light.

"This shattered dream you cannot justify! We're gonna scream until we're satisfied! What are we running for? We've got the right to be angry!" Aeris' left hand began to transform into a lupine claw. "What are we running for? When there's no where we can run to anymore!" The red road vanished, Aeris was standing alone in a pool of red.

"We can't afford to be innocent, stand up and face the enemy! It's a do or die situation, we will be invincible! And with the power of conviction... there is no sacrifice!" Aeris drew a small knife that Sephiroth usually kept in his boot for general utility purposes, and drove it into her chest. "It's a do or die situation, we will be invincible!"

There was a slight pain, but it was only a steel knife, and in she had already shifted enough to trigger her regeneration. "Won't anybody help us? What are we running for? When there's no where, no where we can run to anymore!" Aeris pulled the knife from her chest, it was soaked in blood, but not one drop fell from her chest, not even the clothing stayed damaged.

"We can't afford to be innocent, stand up and face the enemy! It's a do or die situation, we will be invincible! And with the power of conviction... there is no sacrifice!" With a tongue that was as lupine as human, Aeris licked the blood from the knife, and tossed it aside. "It's a do or die situation, we will be invincible!" There was a bright flash of light during which Aeris shifted all the way to Crinos, and then shifted back to full human before it ended.

Aeris smiled and basked in their applause for a moment before nodding herself. "Thank you. This next song goes out to the man who I love, in case he hasn't quite caught on yet!" The beat that started was just as sure of itself, but slower without the martial undertone of the last song.

"When you feel all alone, and the world has turned its back on you, give me a moment please, to tame your wild, wild heart. I know you feel like the walls are closing in on you. It's hard to find relief and people can be so cold. When darkness is upon your door, and you feel like you can't take anymore.

Let me be the one you call. If you jump I'll break your fall. Lift you up and fly away with you into the night. If you need to fall apart, I can mend a broken heart. If you need to crash, then crash and burn. You're not alone!" /You don't have to be perfect for us Sephiroth, you can just be yourself and it will be enough.\

"When you feel all alone, and a loyal friend is hard to find. You're caught in a one way street, with the monsters in your head. When hopes and dreams are far away and you feel like you can't face the day.

Let me be the one you call. If you jump I'll break your fall. Lift you up and fly away with you into the night. If you need to fall apart, I can mend a broken heart. If you need to crash, then crash and burn. You're not alone!" /It's funny in that sarcastic upon closer inspection and either really funny or really sad way that I'm sure you'd appreciate Sephiroth. You've brought together these people who really care for each other, and you don't realize it.\

"Because there has always been heartache and pain and when it's over you'll breathe again. You'll breathe again." /I'm sure it won't kill you to be human Sephiroth. Nothing else has been able to do it, why should this?\

"When you feel all alone and the world has turned its back on you give me a moment please, to tame your wild wild heart! Let me be the one you call. If you jump I'll break your fall. Lift you up and fly away with you into the night. If you need to fall apart, I can mend a broken heart. If you need to crash then crash and burn! You're not alone!"

/You've spent your entire life looking for a family, haven't you Sephiroth? Well all that time it's been right here. Okay maybe a little too seriously interpreted considering Vincent, but we're here for you just as much as he is. So don't be afraid to ask. I don't know how I could say it any more obviously without a neon sign and a giant hammer to whack you over the head with.\

The music slowly died and Aeris like Sephiroth ceased to be the center of attention. All of a sudden Sephiroth and Aeris, looking in different directions were both cast in spotlights. Sephiroth turned around and resentfully faced Aeris. "I can't escape this hell, So many times I've tried. But I'm still caged inside!" In the blink of an eye, faster than Melkore could adjust the spotlight Sephiroth was right next to Aeris, and speaking words that only she could hear. "Did I ever tell you that Hojo kept me in a cage in his lab?" Then Sephiroth preformed a quick maneuver, a push from his right hand and leg sweep knocking Aeris' legs out from under her and making her fall out of the spotlight. With his other hand he drew Masamune. "Somebody get me through this nightmare, I can't control myself."

The spotlight blinked out, and it was impossible to see what was going on. "So what if you can see, the darkest side of me?" The spotlight came back on. Masamune would have been planted firmly in Aeris' chest, if she hadn't grabbed it on its way down. "No one will ever change this animal I have become." Aeris said those words and then she shifted. The Crinos claws were just human enough to maintain their grip, and flushed enough with muscles that Aeris was able to hurl Masamune and Sephiroth holding onto it across the stage.

Of course if Sephiroth had been holding on with everything he had, she wouldn't have been able to do that, let alone stop him with her hands in human form, but the crowd didn't know that. Sephiroth certainly seemed to be giving it his all from the way that he seemed to come to a complete stop in midair, and landed gracefully. Sephiroth's face was home only to concentration. "Help me believe it's not the real me." Sephiroth rushed at Aeris who used her longer reach to try and whack Sephiroth with one of her paws. But Sephiroth dodged aside, and sliced at her right arm. The cut was deep, it hadn't been for the mass of muscle and bone in that arm it would have severed the limb. But he was so focused on that one action that it he didn't see Aeris' left paw coming (or at least made it look like he didn't) till it was wrapped around his neck.

Then Aeris' fur melted away into flesh, her arm healing back to normal in the process. Then she proceeded to do something no one in their right mind would try to. She fell forward wrapping her arms around Sephiroth in a hug. "Somebody help me tame this animal." She said that loud enough for other people to hear, and then whispered her own words to Sephiroth. "Do you know that if it hadn't been for Elmyra, I would have been classified as a schizophrenic?"

Sephiroth stepped back and Aeris sunk to the floor before he turned his back on her once again sheathing Masamune. "I can't escape myself, some many times I've lied." Aeris drew one small breath and those who had a good enough seat could see fur starting to grow along her body again. "But there's still rage inside." She leapt at Sephiroth's back shifting on the way to it and tackled him dragging him to the ground. Her body weight drove him down onto the stage. And at first all he could do was struggle hopelessly. "Somebody get me through this nightmare."

"Really? I was the one who killed your mother as an act of mercy." Sephiroth pushed his hands down on the stage which rocked with energy throwing Aeris off gait for a moment. It was long enough for Sephiroth to flip over and then toss Aeris off of him. It wasn't enough to stop Aeris who was back on all fours with her fur bristling. Somehow she forced words into coherence through her "I can't control myself. So what if you can see, the darkest side of me? No one will ever change this animal I have become. Help me believe it's not the real me."

Aeris charged right at Sephiroth, who waited calmly for her. He stood his ground, and then grabbed both of Aeris paws with his hands and held them back. He grinned at her. "Somebody help me tame this animal I have become." It would be the words that Aeris growled that undid him. "I already knew that." Sephiroth's eyes widened and Aeris slammed her head into Sephiroth's knocking him backwards.

Aeris pounced on him but Sephiroth managed to draw Masamune and drive it through the side of Aeris' body as she fell downwards on him claws ready. Then once again Aeris body shrunk and Masamune was no longer buried into her flesh but into empty air. Once more she fell on him, this time not as a predator but as a lover. "Help me believe it's not the real me, somebody help me tame this animal."

Sephiroth easily rolled out from underneath the human Aeris and once more Masamune's shining blade was hid by dark leather. "Somebody help me through this nightmare, I can't control myself. Somebody wake me from this nightmare, I can't escape this hell." Then he whispered the words hoping that Aeris would hear him when he was looking the other way. "Then why in the name of Gaia didn't you tell me before?" Aeris rolled back over, and punched Sephiroth as a human. "Why do you think Sephiroth? Because it would mean telling you that you had failed. Not just to save my mother's life; that was beyond you control. But you failed to properly repress my memories.

Not that I can remember that much anyway. Nothing really besides blood stained floors and a boy dressed in black with silver hair. Besides, it was fun, I kept waiting to see if I could make you angry enough to admit that you had already saved my life once." Sephiroth's mask of concentration shattered. "Oh, you Cetra bitch!"

Sephiroth leapt to his feet, but Aeris already had. As he turned he got a fist full of claws to the chest, skewering him. His body slumped slightly though he knew he would be perfectly fine as soon as they were out of his body. They said the words together this time. "So what if you can see, the darkest side of me? No one will ever change this animal I have become. Help me believe it's not the real me! Somebody help me tame this animal I have become." Sephiroth kicked at Aeris' arm, knocking it up and himself off of her arm.

Then he charged at Aeris, slamming his shoulder into her chest knocking the Crinos wolf to the stage. "You know, I like this Aeris who can't just look at me with those huge green eyes and convince me to do anything she wants, who has to actually prove her strength to me." A rough lupine tongue ran along Sephiroth's face. "You know, I like this Sephiroth who admits to having emotions and is willing to act on them. He reminds me more of the boy who I thought would do anything to help others." Sephiroth punched Aeris in the face. She did the same to his gut sending him flying about five feet.

He landed on his feet, and almost instantly Aeris got back on her two feet and finally shifted to human. The approached each other carefully, and then they fell into each others arms. Both pretending to be too tired to support themselves. "Help me believe it's not the real me, somebody help me tame this animal. This animal I have become."

Melkore did not actually broadcast "okay folks break it up, you two can pull of each others clothes later" but he certainly thought it. Frankly however he knew that saying it out loud, where either Sephiroth or Aeris could hear (which probably was anywhere within a mile of them) would be a surefire death sentence. So instead he signaled the next act and took the spot light off Sephiroth and Aeris.

Alex stepped forward in his human form, stepped up to a microphone, walked it to the front of the stage, and without further ado, began. The song he had selected had been one Mirri had brought his attention to, and like she had guessed, he had not been able to resist it. A spot light fell on him as the first words left his mouth. "We are going backwards! Put your best foot backwards! We are growing backwards! Put your best foot backwards!"

With each line Alex took a step back taking his microphone with him. After those four lines he settled into a less turbulent beat. "We have ceased to educate and now face devastation. Evolution is the means of coping with this rebarbarization!" The beat picked up again, not the amount at which it had started, but a simple maintainable pace, like a wolf's run.

"We have to develop our natural selection, cultivate the changes that will help in our protection, from CEO to checkout clerk we're drifting through the shore. Come on everybody, BACK ON ALL FOURS!" At those words Alex let his own feet droop out from under him and he fell to the floor on his back, all four limbs failing at nothing, the traditional posture for a wolf laughing so hard that their sides were splitting.

Even in that position he managed to do a good enough job of singing that his words weren't lost. "Down, down, down, get down on the ground, down, down, down, four feet on the ground!" As Alex spoke those last words he did something that he swore he would kill any member of the group who mentioned it at a later date, he rolled over.

He rolled over to get all four of his limbs underneath his body. "We are going backwards! Put your best foot backwards! We are growing backwards! Put your best foot backwards!" This time instead of taking steps backwards Alex slowly rose to his feet to perch on what he considered a lower rung of the evolutionary ladder. Again the beat was slow.

"Unfriendly environments, from Nibelheim to Midgar, through genetic engineering, we will all become wolves with gills..." As the beat began to speed up again, Alex's body took on more lupine aspects to a much greater degree then Aeris' had, though he was still able to summon forth words understandable to a human ear.

"The icecaps are melting so we'll have to learn to swim, the ozone is depleted and our future's looking grim. We'll grow hair everywhere to block out the gamma rays. I'm really looking forward to humanity's next phase!" As Alex spoke those words he was practicing what he preached.

The Crinos form had never been intended for this particular purpose, but it did the job quite nicely. If anyone could tell that the voice they were "hearing" was no longer arriving through their traditional five senses, they didn't seem to mind it. /Down, down, down, get down on the ground! Down, down, down, four feet on the ground!\ Alex dropped to the ground, by this point looking even less like a human being and more like a cross between Crinos and his full lupine form. /We are going backwards! Put you best foot backwards! We are growing backwards! Put your best foot backwards! Sex is too unsafe to share among the population, we will propagate our selves through autopulation...\

Behind the stage Mirri' wiped away a small tear at the fact that after much (hurried) training, Alex had been able to pronounce the term correctly. This time there were no words, just the howling, barking, and growling of the full wolf that Alex now was. Since the wolf clearly couldn't finish the song, the rest of the group threw forward the last chorus. "Down, down, down, get down on the ground. Down, down, down, four feet on the ground! Down, down, down, get down on the ground! Down, down, down, four feet on the ground!"

Nobody asked what happened to the wolf, or why Alex was suddenly present again as Niro Rose moved on stage with a single part of the black curtain. He still wore his black trenchcoat, and he still had his magnum strapped to his side. His voice reverberated throughout the square, somehow all the more haunting because there was nothing spectacular about it.

"Once I had my heroes, and once I had my dreams. But all of that has changed now, the truth begins again! The truth is not that comfortable. Mother taught us patience, the virtues of restraints. Father taught us boundaries, the knowledge we must know." Sephiroth, who was looking in Niro's direction managed to scoff without making it obvious to anyone watching and utter a very low "Yeah right..."

Niro continued. "I'm trying to protect my unity!" In the blink of an eye Niro drew his weapon. "That's when I reach for my revolver!" He pulled back the hammer with complete coldness. "That's when it all gets blown away!" He raised the gun and pulled the trigger. One of the three white lights on Niro vanished in a shatter of glass. In actuality Niro hadn't shot the light, the failing shards might have hurt someone.

As Melkore put it "That's like running for mayor of lawsuit city!" So the bullet simply went into the rafters while the speakers played the sound of shattering glass and Melkore cut the light with perfect timing. "That's when I reach for my revolver." Niro spun the gun calmly quite sure he would neither drop it nor fire it. "The spirit passes by this way." Niro spun the gun right back into his holster.

"My friend once told me, his one and only aim. To build a giant castle and in it sign his name. Sign it with complete community." James perked right up knowing that he was the subject of the song, and began to pound the keys as if this would elicit a louder sound from them. "That's when I reach for my revolver." The gun practically jumped into Niro's hand again. "That's when it all gets blown away!" Another shot in a different direction, both the lights to the left and right where out, through use of the same trick. "That's when I reach for my revolver. The spirit passes by this way."

Niro returned the gun to its holster and took off his sunglasses. No special effects where needed to make his eyes a sight to behold. "And now the sky is empty, and that is nothing new, instead they look upon us, when they tell us that we're not there. And I say, that's when I reach for my revolver!" Niro had it in hand instantly and instantly the hammer was back. "That's when it all gets blown away!"

The last light went out with a bright flash of light, and then there was darkness. Niro continued singing and the music continued without pause however. "That's when I reach for my revolver, the spirit passes by this way. That's when I reach for my revolver! That's when it all gets blown away! That's when I reach for my revolver. The spirit passes by this way..." Lights instantly came on, but Niro had vanished.

In bright white light Vincent made his arrival. He did so in the shape of a swarm of bats reforming into a human being, perhaps one of the better known vampire clichés but still quite effective when someone sees it in real life. Vincent emerged from his swarm of bats in his blue Turk uniform, and blue light flooded in on him from a series of lights that turned themselves back on and moved at Melkore's command.

Vincent stood before the crowd and smiled. "Listen, when you've been thinking the same thoughts over and over again, for 30 years you find yourself putting them to all kinds of tunes just to keep yourself from going crazy. So here it is three decades afterwards, but then I'm a vampire, what can I say, its better late than never."

At first there was no music and Vincent almost crooned the words into his mike. "Where is your boy tonight? I hope he is a gentlemen. Maybe he won't find out what I know, you were the last good thing about this part of town." After those words the music came, and it had a much faster than beat then the one to which Vincent had been singing so he adjusted and got on with it.

"When I wake up, I'm willing to take my chances on the hope you realize that you hate him more than you notice. I wrote this for you, for you so..." Vincent, paused for a moment and swirled his red cloak and suddenly he was joined by two shadows on stage. He spun closer to the one that resembled Simon Hojo and rested a hand firmly on his shadowy shoulder. "You need him, I could be him."

Vincent then proceeded to apply the pressure of his arm a little differently, it involved driving his elbow into the shadow Hojo's neck, hard enough to make the shadowy head fall to the ground and the entire body dissolve into a pool of shadow. "I could be an accident but I'm still trying, YEAH! That's more than I can say for him!"

Vincent turned to the other shadowy being. "Where is your boy tonight? I hope he is a gentleman." /Hojo didn't have anything to do with blocking out those memories, I blocked them out myself. So that I wouldn't realize that I was his father, so that it would have been easier for me to kill him if I had to.\ "Maybe he won't find out what I know. You were the last good thing about this part of town."

As Vincent said those words he did a quick twist, misplaced his feet slightly (and obviously on purpose to anyone who knew just how graceful Vincent was) and collapsed on the stage. "Some day I'll appreciate in value, get off my ass and call you! But meantime, I'll sport my brand new fashion of waking up with pants on at four in the afternoon." /It sort of sad how little becoming a vampire has changed my hours if I was allowed to set them for myself and didn't have missions getting in the way.\

As Vincent lay on the floor, the pile of ooze that had been Simon Hojo's shadow began to swarm over him. "You need him, I could be him! I could be an accident but I'm still trying!" Vincent got back on his feet like only a vampire could, seeming to effortlessly rise from laying on his back on to standing straight, escaping from the mess that had been Hojo which finally stagnated and stopped moving. "That's more than I can say for him. One, Two, Three, Four!"

Vincent danced forward, showing off what his feet were really capable of, pretending to scan the audience for someone he already knew the location of. "Where is your boy tonight? I hope he is a gentleman." /Can I really blame myself? He had my genes, and Hojo's choice of upbringing. By all rights he should have been psychotic, after all psychosis can be inherited can't it?\ "Maybe he won't find out what I know: you were the last good thing about this part of town."

Vincent approached the shadow that still remained and went on his knees before it. "He won't find out, he won't find out. He won't find out!" The shadowy being ran a hand through Vincent's hair and then was sucked into him, leaving him alone. "Where is your boy tonight? I hope he is a gentleman!" /But then he did better than I expected of him. He must have gotten your sense of right and wrong because he sure doesn't have my screwed up one that says its okay to score with your boss' wife as long as you kill him fairly soon after you start doing it.\ "Maybe he won't find out what I know... you were the last good thing about this part of town.

Where is your boy tonight? I hope he is a gentleman. Maybe he won't find out what I know: you were the last good thing about this part of town." Vincent raised his hands for a moment there was complete darkness in the Event Square. When it finally did lift it felt as if it could have stretched five seconds onto infinity.

Vincent bowed and got out of the way and Melkore stepped up into a spotlight, and took a few moments to just strum Sylvia before he started singing. "I've been trying too hard, I've been spinning around." Melkore provided a quick 360 degree pivot, still facing the crowd as he went on. "Got people chasing me down! Got find a way back to my world somehow, somehow."

He took his hands off Sylvia regretfully and mimed the position he took when piloting the Valar. "Right now, I wanna get lost inside a song, where there's no right or wrong. In my room is where I belong. My life is mine, once I'm behind the door!" Melkore took his hands off the imaginary wheel and seized Sylvia with a vengeance. Not roughly, but just with intense desire.

"Whenever we're together no one's a star! I can pour it all out right from the heart. If it's up to me, we'll never be apart, cause I'm in love with my guitar!" Melkore raised Sylvia up so that its head was higher than his, his eyes intensely focused on the chords as his hands did what they knew best.

"I grab handful of strings I've been dieing to play. It carries me far away. I don't need to explain when I've got nothing to say, oh yeah! If I break down it's all the sound I make." His fingers moved across Sylvia with as much grace as Sephiroth's arms handled Masamune. While he was proficient at using the guitar as a gun, he was truly a master at handling the instrument as what it was supposed to be.

"Whenever we're together, no one's a star! I can pour it all out right from the heart. If its up to me, we'll never be apart, cause I'm in love with my guitar!" By this point Melkore's fingers were achieving the kind of speed that you needed to be a SOLDIER to obtain. Which made it rather impressive as he wasn't actually snapping the strings given what kind of strength SOLDIERS could get out of their fingers as well.

Melkore went down slightly, holding Sylvia as he might a female partner during a pivotal moment in a dance. "Keeper of my secrets. Part of all my dreams. Somehow we're connected, from a whisper to a scream!" After those lines Melkore broke into a few moments worth of something that would be quite hard for anyone to forget. A man tangoing with his guitar. He even lifted it over his head, and spun it around on one finger for a moment.

However after that he got back to singing much to James' bemusement. "Whenever we're together no one's a star. I can pour it all out right from the heart! If it's up to me, we'll never be apart, cause I'm in love with my guitar." Now it was a foxtrot. Sephiroth wondered where exactly Melkore had learned the dance moves he was now using.

"Whenever we're together no one's a star. I can pour it all out right from the heart! If it's up to me, we'll never be apart, I'm in love with my guitar, oh yeah!" Melkore struck a pose for one single moment as if he was about to go out with the well known finish of smashing his guitar to pieces, and then stopped. He let Sylvia fall from his momentarily limp fingers and caught her again before she hit the ground.

"I'm in love, I'm in love, I'm in love with my guitar. I'm in love with my guitar!" His piece spoken on the issue of following your love wherever and in whoever (or whatever) you found it, spoken, Melkore finally stopped.

There was a long pause as Melkore's music ended, and he bowed out of center stage with grace. James walked out carrying his keyboard with him, he placed it down in the spotlight Melkore made for him, and he waved to the crowd.

"Hey, just to give you guys a peek into my life, let me give you a list. I've been shot at, jumped off a 70th story roof, made friends with a guy who's been trying to kill me, stole a tank, blew up, or to be more exact, blew down, a giant mechanical monstrosity with it, drove the tank I stole through a Shinra checkpoint and everything else that's brought me here since the last time I've slept. And after I sleep, I'm going to save the Planet before I can sleep again. Well with that out of the way, let's get this show on the road!" Melkore started strumming and James started singing.

"I've got a smile on my face, and I've got four walls around me. I've got the sun in the sky, all the water surround me. Oh you know, yeah I've been down and sometimes I'll lose... I've been battered, but I'll never bruise... it's not so bad!" Vincent looked on and smiled, now there was someone unquestionably out of their mind, and but James was one of the happy ones, and what more could you really ask from life?

"And I say, way-hey-hey, it's just an ordinary day, and it's all your state of mind! At the end of the day, you've just got to say... it's all right!" Sephiroth frowned, what was it that psychotic had said? Oh yes "how soon he has become not only combat worthy but accustomed to war. We witness a being that clearly an improvement on the human method, 'a natural killer' beyond doubt" that was it. Was that James? No it couldn't be. James just had no other choice to get used to war, maybe sometime soon James would have a chance to get used to peace.

"She sings on the corner, what keeps her from dying? Let them say what they want, but she won't stop trying... Oh you know, she might stumble if they push her around. She might fall, but she'll never lie down...it's not so bad!" Aeris could only wonder if James was describing her or Mirri, and how odd it could be that any lack of clarity could exist in describing one or the other. But then she had become more like Mirri, and maybe in his small ways James made Mirri more like her.

"And I say, way-hey-hey, it's just an ordinary day, and it's all your state of mind! At the end of the day, you've just got to say... it's all right. It's all right, it's all right...it's ALL RIGHT!" What could Melkore do but agree, this was turning out to be more fun than he had expected it to be, it had been a while since he had been able to play Sylvia as a guitar rather than a weapon.

"Because in this beautiful life, there's always some sorrow. And it's a double-edged knife, but there's always tomorrow… oh you know! It's up to you now if you sink or swim! Just keep the faith that your ship will come in... it's not so bad." Ragabashes, what could you say? You threw one (especially this one) into the Fields of Slaughter and they'd ask what all the fighting was about.

"And I say, way-hey-hey, it's just an ordinary day, and it's all your state of mind! At the end of the day, you've just got to say... I say, way-hey-hey, it's just an ordinary day

and it's all your state of mind! At the end of the day, you've just got to say... it's all right, it's all right. I've got a smile on my face, and I've got four walls around me!" With those words James' hands rose from the keyboard and he took off his gloves. For the first time it become clear to Sephiroth why James had gone into another room in Melkore's house to put on his new gloves.

Underneath those gloves James didn't have hands. Or at least not normally hands. They were, what they were, and they were covered with a light coat of red fur. Also, they had no fingernails. Instead they had small slots in them from which one could only guess that claws could be extended.

Behind the curtains Mirri pondered the significance of that line. Four walls around him was the last thing Sephiroth would ever want, but to James it was just detail. But then after all James was nothing but then what was James but Sephiroth with none of his weaknesses and many of his strengths.

Deference without Sephiroth's stony impartiality. Confidence without Sephiroth's sense of distance. Most of all, none of Sephiroth's ever present "we are going to go do the mission, and do it so well that we fall asleep into our beds, wake up and go do another mission the day after" narrow focus on life that left no room for fun. Granted, Aeris hopefully would be doing something about that fairly soon. Still, Sephiroth would never understand the way that Mirri blended business with pleasure, of course James would probably never either, but he did it in his own way as well at least.

Still, Mirri was quite sure that holding James up to his competitors for her feelings (Reno, Melkore, possibly Rufus while he was alive, doubtlessly Zack while he had been alive, granted Zack obvious had plans to nail so many girls that eventually his bedposts would have so many notches in them that they would inevitably collapse during an act that would put one more notch on them) the Firecat came out far ahead. Well, now it was her turn to show some emotion.

Well how should Mirri describe who she had been, who had was, who she would be, all in one song? It was surprisingly easy. "I hate the world today, you're so good to me, I know but I can't change. Tried to tell you but you look at me like maybe I'm an angel underneath... innocent and sweet." Melkore looked at Mirri, and wondered if anyone could possibly have ever thought her innocent and sweet. Then he looked at James, and just shrugged and mouthed the words "ride to your Dulcinea my son."

"Yesterday I cried, you must have been relieved to see the softer side. I can understand how you'd be so confused, I don't envy you, I'm a little bit of everything. All rolled into one!" Niro agreed, even to him nothing could have described Mirri more succinctly than that last line.

"I'm a bitch, I'm a lover. I'm a child, I'm a mother. I'm a sinner, I'm a saint! I do not feel ashamed, I'm your hell, I'm your dream! I'm nothing in between, you know you wouldn't want it any other way!" Who would Mirri be for James? The exact same person who she was happy being, and she wouldn't love anyone who desired her otherwise.

"So take me as I am, this may mean, you'll have to be a stronger man. Rest assured that when I start to make you nervous, and I'm going to extremes... Tomorrow I will change, and today won't mean a thing!" Vincent felt a momentary pang of regret, wishing someone had given him that advice three decades ago.

"I'm a bitch, I'm a lover, I'm a child, I'm a mother! I'm a sinner, I'm a saint, I do not feel ashamed! I'm your hell, I'm your dream, I'm nothing in between. You know you wouldn't want it any other way!" Mirri was confident in that, even the people who couldn't have her, like Reno wouldn't have wanted her to be anyone but herself.

"Just when you think, you got me figured out, the season is already changing. I think it's cool, you do what you do, and don't try to save me. I'm a bitch, I'm a lover!

I'm a child, I'm a mother, I'm a sinner, I'm a saint! I do not feel ashamed. I'm your hell, I'm your dream! I'm nothing in between, you know you wouldn't want it any other way!" Aeris took a moment to reflect how much perception of a person depended on who was perceiving them.

"I'm a bitch, I'm a tease, I'm a goddess on my knees! When you hurt, when you suffer, I'm your angel undercover! I've been numb, I'm revived, can't say I'm not alive! You know I wouldn't want it any other way!" A loud cry of encouragement went up from the crowd, and one solitary wolf whistle, accompanying it, an object flew through the air to land perfectly at Mirri's feet. It was a Turk uniform, shirt, pants, tie, all wrapped up in one complete bundle. Across it was a small note. "I know you always wanted to have my boys for a trophy, but I'm off to find another girl and might need them with her, so you'll have to settle for this instead. Dancing on the Fat Man's Grave- R"

Mirri made a quick note to retrieve the bundle before they vacated the stage. She could have the stuff put up with a plaque beneath it reading "The one that got away" and best of all she knew James wouldn't mind at all.

But by this time James had his gloves back on and Mirri gave him a teasing smile with crick of the finger to signal to come to her. James did and both were bathed in white light. For the shortest moment there was complete silence, and then Melkore's amplified voice like echoed out. "Now then, presenting the Queen and Tom of the Cat's Of War themselves, Mirri Lufkin Catwarrior and James Firecat! Now for the rest of us schmucks..."

While Melkore made introduction taking his time James and Mirri had a quick conversation. "James you're able to see what no one else can, confident, strong enough to stand up for yourself, curious enough not to use that strength to push others around, and your loyal. I don't know what else I could ask for from a man."

"Mirri your powerful enough to stand up for what you believe in. There's no way you'd ever let anyone stand between you and the ones you love, and after seeing the way you treated the people of Corel, that just told me what I always suspected. Even when people spat on you, even when people hated you, you still loved them, you've got a heart that's way bigger than I think anyone beside me, even you, ever realized." It ashamed Mirri to admit that she blushed at that point.

Then James and Mirri broke apart slightly and James was instantly cast in bright red light, yet it managed to have a positive effect on him. Mirri for her part was lit up with bright electric yellow lighting and she started singing.

James as one might expect, blazed the trail, and Mirri let him. "I think we're going somewhere, we're on to something good here. Out of mind, out of state, just trying to keep my head on straight." Mirri quickly stood up and took her turn however. "I think we're going somewhere. We're on to something good here. There's only one thing left to do, drop all I have and go with you."

Then they banded together. "Somewhere, back there, I left my worries all behind.

My problems fell out of the back of my mind. We're going and I'm never knowing, never knowing, where we're going. To go back to where I was would just be wrong. I'm pressing on!"

Mirri was in charge this time. "Pressing on, all my distress is going, going, gone. Pressing on, pressing on! And I won't sit back, and take this anymore, cause I'm done with that, I've got one foot out the door!" James was more than glad to finish up whatever Mirri left for him. "And to go back where I was would just be wrong, I'm pressing on!"

It was an interesting combination of voices. Mirri had a mezzo-soprano that could cut through confusion and burn a way into your soul. James had a... well there was no word for it. James couldn't sing, at least not the conventional sense of the word. His voice could probably be classified as a tenor, but it lacked both training and awareness that it lacked training; it had its odd appeal just not to someone with any sense of vocal aesthetics.

"I think we're going somewhere. We're on to something good here. Out of mind, out of state, just trying to keep my head on straight. I think we're going somewhere. We're on to something good here!" Mirri stopped for a moment, and asked James a question consisting of one single word. "Adversity?" James answered it at once. "We get around it! Searched for joy..." Mirri nodded approvingly. "In you I found it."

That was all the problems those two had to confront. Sometimes the road to true love did run straight, or at least pretty straight except for some kinky bits. "Somewhere back there I left my worries all behind, my problems fell out of the back of my mind! We're going and I'm never knowing, never knowing, where we're going! To go back to where I was would just be wrong, I'm pressing on! Pressing on, all my distress is going, going, gone, pressing on, pressing on!

"And I won't sit back, and take this anymore. Cause I'm done with that, I've got one foot out the door. And to go back where I was would just be wrong I'm pressing on! To go back to where I was would just be wrong, I'm pressing on. Pressing on, all my distress is going, going, gone. Pressing on, pressing on, and I won't sit back, and take this anymore! Cause I'm done with that, I've got one foot out the door! And to go back where I was would just be wrong, I'm pressing on!"

Mirri stopped singing, because the next line was undoubtedly suited just for James. "You look down on me, but you don't look down on me at all." Likewise Mirri had the next line all to herself. "You smile and laugh, and I feel the love you have for me." The two got together for the last lines however. "I think we're going somewhere. And we're on to something good here, and we're gonna make it after all!" At the words "gonna make it after all" James tossed his hat up into the air revealing his cat ears for all to see. Not that it made much difference after seeing his hands. Impressively James adjusted himself so as to have his hat back on top of his head.

Then things started that no one had bothered to tell Sephiroth about when they had planned them. Mirri was suddenly alone in a spotlight. "This song goes out to someone who was given a number and had his name taken away. Oh, and I'd like to thank my soon to be husband for coming with this idea and being smart enough to leave execution to me.

A second after the music started spotlights went out till only Melkore was left playing his guitar. "Run and tell all of the angels, this could take all night." His spotlight vanished and just as quickly Aeris' reignited as she began to sing. "Think I need a devil to help me get things right."

Vincent took it from there, somehow managing to look even paler and his veins more pulsating than normal. "Hook me up a new revolution cause this one is a lie." When Mirri was illuminated she had one of Reno's cigarettes (unlit) gripped in her hand. "We sat around laughing and watched the last one die." The reference was obvious to everyone present.

With nothing else to do around the office Mirri had taken a short sabbatical with the Turks to crush the rebel group AVALANCHE not so long ago, it had been the happiest time of Reno's life. It was also worth noticing that Mirri seemed not the least bit concerned that AVALANCHE's ideologies would have been perfectly in line with the current ones the Seraphim held.

Instead she simply flicked the cigarette aside and James took over. "I'm looking to the sky to save me, looking for a sign of life. Looking for something help me burn out bright!" The last lines coming out of James left "burn out bright" with no more connotation of the an approaching end then they would have to a phoenix.

His turn over James graciously motioned to Niro who was suddenly illuminated. "I'm looking for complications, looking cause I'm tired of lying, make my way back home when I learn to fly high." The resident vampire took over at this point. "Think I'm done nursing the patience, it couldn't wait one night. I'd give it all away, if you give me one last try."

Aeris dutifully grasped the song once again. "We live happily ever trapped if you just save my life. Run and tell the angels that everything is all right." After this Alex, looking less lupine then he did in his Crinos form but considerably less than full human began to part sing part howl. "I'm looking to the sky to save me, looking for a sign of life. Looking for something to help me burn out bright!"

Once more Melkore was given a chance to show off his excellent fingerwork. "I'm looking for a complication, looking cause I'm tired of trying. Make my way back home when I learn to fly make my way back home when I learn to..." Spot lights turned on and all of the group sang the bridge twice over. "Fly along with me, I can't quite make it alone. Try to make this life my own. Fly along with me, I can't quite make it alone, try to make this life my own."

For the last time Aeris was given the honors of singing. "And I'm looking to the sky to save me, looking for a sign of life. Looking for something to help me burn out bright! I'm looking for a complication. Looking cause I'm tired of trying. Make my way back home when I learn to fly, make my way back home when I learn to fly. Make my way back home when I learn to…" She let those words echo out and then slowly die away.

Sephiroth could only watch them from in silence in lack of a spotlight, wondering where exactly James got off coming up with an idea like that and trusting in Mirri to implement it. /How different is it from that time I set it so a bucket of water would fall on you when you opened your door? Granted it would have been funnier if you hadn't been able to dodge it.\ Sephiroth knew that voice, knew it beyond the shadow of a doubt.

/Shut up Zack-Kenobi. I don't believe in ghosts, spirits, resurrection, or any kind of afterlife besides the Lifestream rebirth!\ /Yeah lets talk about the Lifestream rebirth. You know it isn't an instantaneous process, it took me close to five years to fill out of most of paperwork. So Seph, since your so good at putting two and two together...\ Sephiroth almost made the mistake of voicing his thoughts instead of just thinking them. /You are fing sting me! He's not you! For one thing James has never declared it his life's ambition to score with every female that walks upright.\

/You're jumping the gun a little there Seph. If that was me in cat ears, how could I be here talking to you? I just donated a little bit more of myself than most people ever do into any one body.\ Sephiroth, remember back on the boat to Costal Del Sol. /You were looking after me?\ /Well duh. If hadn't been for me you wouldn't ever have any fun. Not to mention Aeris would probably never have gotten over the fact that I ended up dropping her a lot harder, and I'll be fair to myself sooner, than I ever intended.\ /In the sense that you never slept with her.\ /What can I say, Seph? You know me from start to finish. She's a tough kid, but she's had a hard life. But hey I could say the same thing of you, that's probably why you were meant for each other.\

/Because faced with the same problems we took opposite solutions to them? I locked my pain as deep down inside myself as I could and left it to fester while she tried to actively forget about hers by helping others.\ /However you want me to say it she's yours now.\ /Or I'm hers.\

/Hey it's your mind, if you can't chose how it is in here, where can you?\ /If its my mind what exactly are you doing here Zack?\ /Oh I'm just here to give you the goodbye you never got. Just think of it as little payback from some people who owe you an impossibly large debt and happen to have a lot of pull where the Lifestream is concerned. So there it is, I'm about to go becomes bits and pieces of a dozen people.\ /Colonel Zack Stephen Hylacon, you're dismissed.\ /Thank you, sir.\ Then he was gone.

Now that the others had finished their last song they remained silent, and for a moment there was silence before the crowd rectified the problem. "Encore! Encore!" The group looked at each other and then at Sephiroth, who smiled calmly just like he did before battle. "Let's give it one more stab." They nodded and they all grabbed their respective microphones, Sephiroth joining them as Melkore played an intro.

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As Alex played a rapid beat on the drums, Vincent raised his mic. "I must have dreamed a thousand dreams…" Sephiroth added the next line "been haunted by a million screams." James' ears twitched as he chimed in "but I can hear the marching feet: they're moving into the street."

Aeris's incredulous voice sang out the next lines; "Now did you hear the news today? They say the danger's gone away…" Alex's voice picked up where she left off "But I can see the fires, still alight;" At this point, Sephiroth raised his right hand, which burst into flames as Alex continued "They're burning into the night…"

Mirri jumped on the next line "There's too many men-" Niro cut her off "Too many people" and Mirri finished the line with him "making too many problems" Melkore chimed in "And there's not much love to go around," all three sang "can't you see this is a land of confusion?"

Sephiroth picked up the chorus with James and Alex singing backup "This is the world we live in and these" Sephiroth clenched his left hand into a fist and raised it above his head as James and Alex did the same "are the hands we're given: Use them and let's start trying to make it a place worth living in!"

Aeris sang the next two lines "Well Superman, where are you now? When everything's gone wrong somehow…" Vincent picked up perfectly "The "men of steel", these men of power are losing control by the hour"

Mirri and James picked up the next verse "And this is the time, this is the place, so we look to the future" Niro joined them "but there's not much love to go around, tell me why this is a land of confusion."

Sephiroth took the chorus again, Alex and James again singing backup "This is the world we live in, and these" Sephiroth put his mic back on the stand and raised both fists in the air, with Alex on his right and James on his left raising their outside arms "are the hands we're given. Use them, and lets start trying to make this a place worth living in!"

Melkore began playing some slow chords and darkness blanketed the stage, but Vincent stepped forward out of it, a wistful look in his eyes "I remember long ago, when the sun was shining, and all the stars were bright, all through the night, in the wake of this madness, as I held you so tight; So long ago…"

Vincent stepped back and the darkness dissipated as Sephiroth stepped forward; "I won't be coming home tonight- My Seraphim, we'll set it right. We're not just making promises that we know we'll never keep." Aeris and Mirri sang the followup "And there's too many men, too many people, making too many problems! And there's not much love to go around, Can't you see this is the land of confusion?"

Everyone sang the last two verses together: "This is the world we live in, and these are the hands we're given" fists went up "Use them and let's start trying to make this a place worth fighting for! This is the world we live in, and these are the names we're given. Stand up, and let's start showing just where are lives are going to!"

Melkore stepped back and played a single, lingering chord that seemed to go on forever, gradually fading. While they music still played, the seven up front all joined hands, and bowed. Then as the chord finally died, so did the lights. The next sound that would be heard by the event square would be an explosion that rocked the Golden Saucers.

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"That was fun." The hole that had been blown in the Event Square of the Golden Saucers was of no particular size or measurement. What was known about it was the fact that it had been blown apart without the apparent use of conventional explosives because there was no ash to be found. "Normally, gigs where we have to run away are a bad thing, but all things considered, I've had worse."

"So Mirri, unless you have something else on tap, can we go our ways now?" "Sure, but you need to find me and James a deserted island, and I think Sephiroth and Aeris might want the same... and before you even think about it, we should not be on the same island or any place close by." "You spoil all my fun Mirri." "That's my job."

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"So now what, Mirri?" James and Mirri had been dropped on the most godforsaken island in the world. It wasn't much more then half a mile by a quarter mile, and the two of them were alone. Considering how much free time they had Mirri was quite sure of what they were about to do. Of course broaching the topic with James was more then a touch difficult, as he considered a three letter word for gender to be no different from the six letter word for it. Thankfully just when Mirri was planning for an offensive more difficult then anything in the Wutaian war and requiring more subtlety then anything they had done in this war, James hit on the idea himself. "Oh, wait a minute, I've got an idea! It was in this book Melkore suggested I read..."

Mirri could guess the book from the way that James rapidly began undoing his shoelaces before kicking his shoes off and taking off his socks. Mirri began to take her vest off, and found James looking at her with his head cocked at an angle to convey complete a complete and total lack of understanding. Mirri shot back one of her own, and James elaborated his position.

"What are you taking your jacket off for? All you need to do is take off your socks and shoes, you know sole to sole." Apparently Melkore had suggested reading something other then "Kama Sutra" who would have guessed? "It was in this book, "Cat's in the Cradle" or something like that by some guy who's last name began with a "v", but that I can't pronounce."

Mirri looked James up once and down, and wondered what exactly she had to lose (besides her virginity, and she was supposed to be losing that) so she put her jacket back on and started to take off her shoes. Once she did that she reclined as James was, and pressed her bare feet to James'

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Vincent checked everything, and resisted the urge to cackle maniacally. He was fairly sure that he could get a good one now that he had Hojo's soul in him. It was ironic, but looking at the body down on the table before him, he knew it was just like what had been done to him. Of course he was doing it without sadistic intent (in fact it was a very benign intent he had), but it was the same.

A body that looked as young as it looked when she had died, connected with needles to its veins (they had been hard to find with blood no longer in them, but Vincent had found them) and those needles connected to small jars. One was filled with blood that Vincent had drawn from various bodies, (he had managed to acquire quite a surplus in Midgar) and one was filled with Lifestream.

The soil from Midgar had been liberally stuffed into the soles of her shoes, everything was ready. Vincent was not so egotistical to believe that what happened next was romantic. This was not prince charming leaning over sleeping beauty to give her a kiss on the lips to awaken her. This was Vincent Valentine, (who if anything was more like prince Vlad "Dracula" Tepes) leaning over the dead body of the women who had been married to someone else yet had borne his child, and he was vomiting into her mouth.

It was not easy to force your intestines to work in reverse, particularly when most of your body wasn't even working at all, but Vincent did it. He vomited blood into Lucresia's mouth, though vampiric vomit was not particularly similar to a human's. There were no gastric juices (at least it didn't burn his throat coming back up) nor were there half-digested pieces of food.

There was only blood because you could only vomit what you had inside, and there was no true way to tell that Vincent had "used" the blood. If he wasn't mistaken his body broke down blood and he exhaled it, but that was just speculation. What mattered was that after Vincent had committed his less than romantic act he closed Lucresia's mouth and propped her head back. She technically couldn't swallow the blood because she was dead, but it would work its way through her body even if only by osmosis.

All of the other necessary requirements were now present in her body. About three pints of blood that Vincent had collected from others, as was his blood and her blood, and so was the lifestream that connected the sparkplug to the engine. Now all Vincent had to do was wait, and Vincent happened to have a lot of practice in that area.

But getting this close to what he wanted was making him just a tad impatient. Nor did it help that because Vincent had just coughed up blood, he was hungry. That was something he could ill afford to be when he was going into battle with Jenova tomorrow so he decided to pass the time by going getting a bite to drink.

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From the mountains of Cosmo Canyon Alex let out a mighty howl. It was a howl that would carry to wolves the world over. It told that once again the Garou were calling to their remaining brethren. If Alex survived what was to come, he would return, and he would do his part to preserve the Garou.

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Melkore sat it in the captain's seat of the Valar, and played Sylvia because there was nothing else to do. He played to empty chairs, and hoped that he would not end up playing to the empty chairs of those who would never return.

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Niro Rose raised his gun to the sky. What was he fighting for? He already knew, he was Jenova, he would fight for the sake of fighting, he would fight to fight, what else was there in the world except fighting?

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"Oh." "What is it, Aeris?" "Your chest, I'm surprised there aren't more scars." "What Hojo did to me doesn't leave scars where you can see them." "That doesn't mean they can't be healed." "If anyone could, it would be you."

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"Well unlike the time I was having this conversation with Vincent I do have cigarettes and a lighter, but they're bad for your health." To be fair, cigarettes were not needed, actual intercourse had not been needed. James and Mirri had just laid there, (sole touching sole) till they both lost consciousness. Not that Mirri wouldn't say there weren't some benefits to it working out like that.

Supposedly, according to some religions only virgins would be able to get into heaven. When the world might be about to end, you could never be too sure how useful your virginity might suddenly become, particularly if your partner still had his as well. Besides, it would be fun to watch Aeris blush when asking her if she still had her virginity. Such was the essence of Mirri Catwarrior, holding onto virginity long after the traditional virginal maiden had lost hers.

Granted Mirri now lost any particular virginity she might have possessed in her feet and toes, but much like the way she had lost her neckular virginity with Vincent, she doubted these were suitable reasons to keep someone out of heaven. Besides, when you got right down to it, James just might have been onto something with that sole to sole thing.

End chapter 34

FN: To start with I'd like to dedicate this chapter to the late great John Belushi, if my editor doesn't find it too preposterous. Sephiroth's "I love war" speech is derived from the works of Kohta Hirano. This chapter just kept getting longer and longer, (and come to think of it so did this end of chapter note) at first it was just going to be James and Mirri who "held up" the Golden Saucers, but then I realized that bringing on Melkore would probably be necessary since he would have the know-how to handle the technical aspects of the job. From there everyone wanted in on and as you can imagine, my characters are not the kind of people you want to have mad at you. Sephiroth's first song is "Winterborn" by Crüxshadows with a few small edits. His second is "Rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated" by Rise Against. I think it fits him pretty well and also works as a love song to Aeris, I had of doing a montage to it (it works better when you have pictures to work with but you'll just have to make the pictures yourself) turned out surprisingly well. Aeris' first song is "Invincible" by Pat Benatar. It was suggested to me by my editor, a brilliant suggestion and I have not even tried to find a song that could possibly work better than it. Her second is "Crash and Burn" by Savage Garden, which with all due respect would be a good name for a Children of Gaia rock band. The song they do together is "Animal I Have Become" by Three Days Grace. My editor wanted me to use "I wish I had an Angel" by Nightwish, but I felt that "Animal" works better since both Sephiroth and Aeris have been through dehumanizing experiences not to mention fears concerning their power and both looked to each other. Alex's song is "We Are Going Backwards" By The Pheromones, don't be surprised if you've never heard of them. Niro's is "That's When I Reach for my Revolver" by Moby. Vincent's song was "Grand theft Autumn" by Fall Out Boy, this was a VERY hard choice. Other considerations including "Bloodlines" by Slayer, "Ha Ha Your Dead" by Greenday, "Over my head" by LIT, "Far far away" by Nickelback, "Hey Julie" by Fountains of Wayne, Renegade by Stratovarius and "My Girlfriend's dead" by The Vandals. In the end I went with it because this one really did a good job of Vincent explaining his relationship with both Lucresia and Sephiroth. Melkore's is "I'm in love With my Guitar" by Alex Johnson which narrowly beat out "Asshole" by Dennis Leary James' song is "Ordinary Day" by Great Big Sea. Mirri's is "Bitch." by Meredith Brooks and the one James and Mirri do together is "Pressing On" by Relient K, since I felt that it really captured the spirit of their relationship. The song they sing for Sephiroth is "Learn to fly" by Foo Fighters. On the subject of what Mirri says before the song yes it that is a line from "Secret Agent Man" but also bare in mind that Sephiroth can of course be translated as "The Numbers" so as Dr. Perry Cox of the show Scrubs would say "That's a trama two-fer". And the song everyone sings together at the end is "Land of Confusion" obviously the Distrubed version. This particular song was suggested and written by my Editor and not me. Anyway I just should take a moment to inform you of the difficulties of writing this chapter to me and my editor's satisfaction. The thing that you must (or at least should be) constantly be aware of when your writing a SxA relationship is that your dealing with two people who are both incredibly strong in their ways, and you have to resist the temptation to ever really make one of them an over powering presence in the relationship. This is opposed to say writing James and Mirri, or even better my Mirri and Reno interactions which only require you to come up with as many bad double entendres in combat as possible. ("Watch my back." "Hell you don't have to tell me, I'd pay money to do that!") After all the Sephiroth Aeris relationship loses much of its snap and appeal if it turns into either Brave Sir Sephiroth rescuing Aeris from Shinra thugs, or little lost child Sephiroth cowering at Aeris side while she soothes like him the mother he never had. That makes it a very complicated and very fulfilling relationship to write if done correctly, but it takes time to do these things right. Which is part of the reason that I decided Aeris should be Garou (it was a crazy idea I had before falling asleep one night) because it did much to help balance the physical presence of her character against Sephiroth's and really against the rest of the group as well. It's a decision I've never stopped being proud of, as you probably noticed that Aeris did more or less no fighting until she gained control of her shapeshifting. I was also tempted to have Sephiroth sing "Heroes" by Gamma Ray and finally admit that he saw himself as a hero, but then I realized that sometimes what proves who characters really are the most is what doesn't change. After reading that line again I can't help but think DUHHHH! Anyway I'm sure Twilight Sephiroth would say just as loudly at this point as he would in chapter one that he doesn't want to be called a hero, because as Malcolm Renolds from Firefly and Serenity so excellently put it "A hero is someone who gets his own men killed." Or maybe as JD on Scrubs says "admitting we're not heroic is when we're most heroic of all" At which point Twilight Seph would ask "I just can win with you people can I?" Well we're on the homestrech(For this fic) now, put in Disk 3.

_OWAN: My head hurts. I hope we start doing short chapters again soon._


	35. Chapter 35

FN: I'm going to do something rather cartoony with the titles in this chapter, bear with me/enjoy it.

Chapter 35 Will you defeat them, your demons? OR: I came, I saw, I kicked some ass!

"Which way do we go now?" The descent into North Crater had been easy up to this point, the group hadn't even encountered any monsters. Now things were about to get more difficult, the singular path they had been following broke into four. Sephiroth looked at the differnt paths, he didn't have time to pick the wrong one given how close Meteor was getting.

"Split up. James and Mirri, take the eastern path. Alex and Vincent head south. Niro and Melkore have the western path. Aeris, you're with me. None of you have my permission to die; we've done the impossible and that makes us mighty."

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Part one: You can try, you'll never break me, we want it all! OR: He wanted a thirteen but they drew a thirty one.

Mirri Catwarrior and James Firecat.

Mirri barely dodged the first sword stroke because surprise slowed her wits. Not surprise at being attacked, but surprise at who was attacking her. She didn't recognize the man's face, but she recognized the way his head seemed to barely be connected to his neck, and the wounds in his chest along with the uniform. He was the First Class SOLDIER she had killed in a "private" duel during their first attack on Shinra HQ.

He was dead, and so were the rest of the people who gathered to block her way. As if sensing her shock, the huge mass of SOLDIERS spoke with one voice. "The lady is a bad loser. Give up Mirri Catwarrior. We are the ones who you killed; we are the ones who you betrayed! We will not leave without extracting our price; we will drag you down to the pits of hell with us! It does not matter what you do, humanity no longer has anywhere to run or hide from the power of Jenova. Give up!"

Mirri steadied herself as her mind processed exactly what she was fighting. They might be dead, but these were no swirling spirits, if they could hit her, (and she knew they could because that first overhead sword stroke had broken the five of her blades it hit instead of her arm) she could hit them back.

"Give up... 'Give up' you say? Of course, such fitting words for your kind. You, who could not stand being human. Don't underestimate humanity, you undead freaks. Come on then, I'll fight you!" One of the soldiers rushed right at Mirri who stood perfectly still.

His body was sliced into pieces before he got within five feet of Mirri. His head slid off his shoulders, his arms out of their sockets, and his legs away from his torso. His entire body turned to dust as it exploded over Mirri who only blinked once.

The SOLDIERS stared in amazement at James. "What the hell are you?" James needed to think for a few moments before he answered taking a moment to reach a hand under his hat and scratch his left ear for a moment. "Isn't it a bit short sighted to suggest that form imbues function? Am I a lion? I don't think of myself as such, but you might as well, because I have a mighty roar." Mirri felt her lip twitch, it was time to point out where James' loyalties lay and how strong they were.

"James, light." Mirri reached into her pocket and pulled out one of Reno's cigarettes, apparently the Turk was good for something after all. James, seeing the cigarette took only a short moment to figure out what Mirri needed. He quickly extracted his tail from his pants and used it to light the cigarette (even if he did try to light the "color coded" end first) in no time.

Mirri held the burning cigarette out towards the assembly of dead men. "I don't smoke these, they're bad for my health and they cost too much. Besides, I prefer to be in the company of flames that rival my own. Look at James' tail, and notice that his flame can burn without producing smoke."

James himself took a moment twist his body around (and sadly his tail at the same time, thus failing to see it) to try and get a good look at his fifth appendage. Mirri continued pointing the cigarette forward like a gun. "I saw him come sopping wet out of the ocean, and the moment he was out of the water his tail rekindled itself. That is the kind of flame that I respect. The flame that burns without smoke, without fuel, it may be extinguished but it will rekindle itself on its own. You aren't even worthy to see that flame. You're nothing but fags."

Mirri used the Corel word for cigarette that also happened to have a completely different connotation when in Midgar. This meaning was not lost on the assembled revenants, one of whom lunged at her, only to receive the same dissection as the first one. "You can only extend your lives by burning up everything good around you and replacing it with smoke. God help someone if they actually come into contact with you, you're full of poisons."

Mirri loaded new blades into her gloves. "We will stomp you out, and extinguish your flames. Don't hold on anything back James, hit them with everything you have. But first, close your eyes."

Regardless of the fact that James was standing before numerous heavily armed foes, he closed his eyes. Mirri kissed him. After holding that kiss for about as long as she could count on her actions to keep the dead SOLDIERS too flabbergasted to react, she let it go and took a deep breath.

"You can open your eyes now James. Go show them why you're the joker in my deck." The joker, that was the perfect symbol for James, he practically danced (if without coordination) when he moved, and he considered it his job to make everyone happy. The fool, the idiot, the joker, it was the most valuable card in the deck and most carried only two of them, these SOLDIERS were about to learn why.

James finally opened his eyes and took off his hat handing it to Mirri. "I need you to hold onto this Mirri, and I suggest you cover your eyes." Mirri didn't. James stepped forward and faced the mass of dead bodies, at least two score of dead SOLDIERS. "I hate to do this, but you guys have made me. It's time for the gloves to come off... that's what I'd say if I didn't sort of need my gloves to fight you. Anyway, I have a question for you, if you put a cat in a box and open the box an hour later, what does it mean if the only part of the cat that remains is its smile? DOUBLE BLIND!"

As James cried out the name of his Limit Break, the flame on his tail grew stronger till it emitted such a bright light that Mirri's corneas just couldn't take it. When the light had passed and Mirri opened her eyes again, she watched the proceedings with a certain amount of detached amusement. The mass of SOLDIERs were trying to hack at James with swords, or shoot him dead with guns, which would have worked better if they could find James.

Actually, finding James was easy, the entire room was flooded with Firecats. Jameses (Jamesi?) were jumping here there and everywhere with strands of wire shooting from their gloves and ripping through the SOLDIERs' bodies. The SOLDIERs fought with the strength and courage of the dammed, literally. When James cut off their heads, their torsos would continue to fight onward. It wasn't until the bodies were sliced into six different segments that they finally turned to dust and vanished.

The SOLDIERS had meant to attack Mirri en masse, but now they found their numbers and enclosed terrain turned against them. Occasionally one of the Firecat's would be struck down, but it would simply vanish into wisps of smoke. Mirri watched it all happen and smirked.

"Nice to see that Jenova isn't the only one who can play mind games." James who happened to be standing right next to Mirri watching the multitude of him attacking the SOLDIERS like chocobos in a pen being slaughtered, nodded. "Yeah, you know I always thought 'frightened to death' was just an expression. Who would guess that it would be the actual truth? Of course this is more like "frightened back to death" since they're already dead, but still..."

Mirri nodded and fired her blades into the mass of SOLDIERS though it was thoroughly unnecessary. "Don't try to think about it James. Besides they're not really being frightened to death. They're just discovering the dangers of the modern world. So this is what splitting the atom could do?" James shrugged helplessly his ears pressed back slightly. "Actually this is just a study in reduction like Schrödinger's cat taught me. This is what life would be like if we were atoms instead of people. What isn't against the rules is compulsory."

Mirri snorted in humor at that explanation. James lived by it well enough most of the time, now he was just taking it to extremes. "So is each one of those actually you?" James flicked his ears slightly. "No, I'm me. Those are just carbon copies of me, literally, considering Schrödinger's cat said that they're mostly made of carbon atoms. If those SOLDIERS happened to be alive then they would be able to realize by now what's happening to them, but as they're dead, they can't.

Apparently Schrödinger's cat spends a lot of time with the undead and he told me that only the living are able to really 'count' for observation. Of course since he's undead himself he can do a lot more with it than I can, because he never actually observes himself. I'm always observing myself, so I know where I am, the key thing however, is that those guys over there don't know where I am.

So ergo, since my position can not be proven, I am everywhere and nowhere to them. Everywhere their blades strike I am not, and I strike from every angle." Mirri didn't need James commentary, she could see the SOLDIERS getting hacked to bits one limb at a time, and the countless number of James who were doing it. Of course to her the repetitions of James were ghostly figures that she could see right through.

But to the dead, well the saying was that the dead knew their own, to them those figures were as real as could be. Of course the only reason that the figures looked ghostly to her was because James was currently living thus quite aware of his own position. To an extent it made even Mirri's brain hurt just thinking about it. So instead she just laughed to herself as she watched those who had planned to slaughter her be slaughtered themselves.

It was a pleasant sight, particularly when the SOLDIER whose head was barely connected to his body apparently realized what was happening. He turned and raced at Mirri and James because they were the only two who were standing still. He dropped his sword as James took off both of his arms. Mirri then proceeded to take off his legs leaving his a only slightly headed stump on the ground. "Like I said before, you're nothing but a cigarette flickering in the darkness, easy to extinguish." Mirri slashed with her blades, and the boot descended on top of the cigarette quelling its flame for all eternity.

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Part two: Lets shout it loud and clear defiant to the end. OR: With our vengeance, we have no time to bleed.

Alexander Diamondclaw and Vincent Valentine.

"We'll make our stand here." Both Alex and Vincent were already hurting; neither was bleeding but both of them had been wounded about a dozen times. /Yes, let them come!\ Alex and Vincent had been making their way down the pathway when they had apparently run into every single monster that lived in North Crater. They had been in far too wide an area of North Crater to fight that massed army, so they pulled back.

Vincent had been rapidly loading and shooting rounds from Death Penalty, blowing big holes in the monstrous bodies. Alex had done everything in his power to hold back the massive rush that threatened to drag him down by sheer weight alone. They had pulled back till they had apparently made a wrong turn.

They had come to a cul de sac with only one way in, but at least the opening was narrow. There was now place left to run, Vincent loaded another bullet into Death Penalty with a jerk of its lever. There could be no fancy tricks with bullets this time, he had only one bullet filled with his blood left, and he had already wasted too many. These things, whatever they were (and there were monsters of all kinds) apparently had acidic blood, and shooting a single one caused the bullet which pierced its skin to melt into its base components a few moments later. Vincent brought Death Penalty up, steadied it with both hands, and fired into the darkness.

At least he had no lack of bullets, and he knew that from the cry of pain and rage that the shot had not been wasted. He jerked the lever back, and the empty casing shot out leaving a trail of smoke behind it.

Alex was taking a moment to lick his wounds; fighting foes whose blood burned his fur and flesh was a new experience for him. He was learned how to work around it however, and did so by applying the oldest of lupine tactics. Break the neck in one clean snap and then toss it away. Doing so allowed him to avoid any true contact with the things' caustic blood, but given the current situation, blows to the neck would soon be hard to achieve.

What they had to do was obvious, if the mass managed to force its way into the culdasac, neither the Garou nor vampire stood a chance. Vincent would keep shooting trying to kill them all off one at a time, while Alex did everything he could to hold them back for as long as he could. Vincent started to one hand Death Penalty, and his rate of fire went from impressive to miraculous considering his weapon.

He drew out a bullet from the bag strapped across his shoulder, holding it with his back two fingers. Then he griped the lever with the front two and thumb of his right hand and pulled it back. It took a simple twist of his hand to shove the bullet into the gun after the spent round automatically shot out of it. Then his front three once again jerked the lever forward to chamber the bullet. He took another bullet with his right hand as he steadied Death Penalty with his lefthand, and fired. By the time he had fired his right hand was once again pulling the lever back to load a new bullet.

Alex licked his paw for a moment and growled. /You know, we are going to die this time Vincent.\ Vincent's right four fingers and a thumb were doing the work of two hands. "I'm already dead Alex." The high "CRACK" of Death Penalty was music to both of their ears. /You know what I mean Vincent.\ A monster rushed forward, and did so far too recklessly. Alex standing slightly to the side of the opening easily crushed the things neck and airway with a paw swipe. It kept going forward and collapsed on the ground at Vincent's feat. "Yes I do. So is this how you planned to leave the world?"

Vincent fired another round into the darkness that held countless foes. /More or less, surrounded by foes, kicking, screaming, clawing, biting to the end, my death will do Fenris proud. Of course I never planned to die fighting alongside a vampire.\ Vincent loaded another bullet fired even as he was reaching for his next one.

"Well I always expected to die surrounded by human beings, fighting human foes, with automatic weapons. I didn't even know that all this occult stuff existed, let alone that I'd be a vampire. But more or less this is how I planed to die, fighting impossible odds with a friend."

These ones came slower, they were smaller, and the two were coming in together. However good their planning was, their timing was horrible. Vincent had the best shot he could have asked for, and he took it. One of the smaller monsters rolled over and died, as its head was blown in. Alex rushed the other one, and was careful to simply sever it's neck with a quick claw slash. He jumped back before the caustic blood could truly start flowing from the wound and also to clear Vincent's line of fire.

/Die with a friend? I could do that.\ Vincent loaded and fired very quickly not sure what shape the next threat would take. "I really doubt that the monsters are going to give us a choice on that one." Alex let out a low growl, using his nose to achieve the same level of perception that Vincent got with his eyes.

/Well look on the bright side, vampire, after dieing here in this way, I am sure we will go straight to Valhala. No waiting in the Fields of Slaughter for us! Straight to the land of wine and women!/ As soon as the 'words' were out of Alex's mouth it happened. Everything stopped, the snarling monsters fell back and a voice stretched out to them.

"Very well done Alexander. All you had to do was defeat us was ally yourself with the filth of the undead. What right do you have to call us fallen when you consort with such?" Alex's body went still. His pupils dilated, his lips drew back from his teeth, and his ears lay flat along his head. Vincent curiosity was assuaged as Alex identified the new threat /Black Spiral Dancers.\

Vincent had another round loaded but he couldn't see anything to shoot so he took a moment to steady Death Penalty with both hands and turned to Alex. "And those are..?" Alex entire body quivered with a mix of fear, hatred, disgust and excitement. /They were once the White Howlers, a tribe whose ferocity rivaled that of the Fenrir. They thought to use the powers of the Wyrm against her, but their minds were too weak. She tricked them, and, thinking they had achieved their aim, they disobeyed the Silver Fangs and attacked her alone. She devoured their totem and their souls, then sent them out to capture members of other tribes. They make their lair here, in the Planet's greatest infected wound, and take their name from the winding paths that lead to the center.\

Vincent looked into the darkness and swore to shame the Captain. "You're telling me they're evil werewolves?" Alex nodded /Yes. Make sure to aim for the head, you can't hope to harm them unless you shoot them in the head.\ "They're going to come in here and try to kill us?" /No, we are going to go out there, and we are going to kill them.\

"Dare I ask why?" /They try uphold their corrupted sense of honor, like covering filth with straw. They claim to be the strongest of the Wyrm's forces, and refuse to work with any of her other monsters, still showing the same arrogance that damned them in the first place. They are vile, monstrous failures, and they must be killed. They mock my honor as a son of Fenris because I work with you, when they will not work with vampires unless directly ordered by the Wyrm. They mock my honor, and they mock yours.\

"I'm neither Garou nor human, I'm a vampire; I have no honor left to mock." /You're a Tzimisce, are you not? It is said that those of your kind can not only control, but also take the form of wolves. In the name of Fenris I declare you of his Get, and those who disagree with my judgment can argue with me! Now then, in the name of Fenris, let us go forward and slay his foes!\

Vincent glanced at Alex and reached into the shadow of his cape. "Fine, we'll do that, but they'll expect us to come out as wolves. We're going to walk out, and we'll do it as human beings. If they expect us to fight tooth and nail, we will kill them with bullets. It's what the deserve for bringing claws to a gun fight, take this." Vincent produced a shotgun of the significantly illegal variety and passed it to Alex.

"The trigger fires the thing, and if you have to reload, well, spend all your shots before you try to, it's automatic so it will load the next slug instantly." Alex shifted to his human form, and slowly took the shotgun from Vincent. Not only was it automatic, it had also had its barrel sawed off, and Alex took it slowly and carefully. "This won't help me against a Black Spiral."

Vincent smiled as he spoke. "I bought this in Icicle Village; they sell all kinds of weird stuff up there to anyone with enough money. Like automatic shotguns, of course I had to take the barrel off myself. Oh, did I mention for some weird reason I was able to get them to make shells loaded with silver pellets? That was when we hated each other, and I thought I might need it. So consider it a bridge between Jenova and Garou. It doesn't have much range, so make sure you're close. Now let's go shoot their tails off."

"Their heads." Alex looked over the shotgun, and Vincent passed him a pair of clips, which he put in his pockets. "You probably won't be able to reload, if you need them, just slam them in where the first clip was..." Vincent pointed out all the necessary points and Alex stood up with the shotgun in a two handed grip. "You're a natural." "I know. We of the Get of Fenris are natural killers because we are nature's killers, now let us go."

Vincent and Alex walked out, and there were five men waiting for them. They were all dressed in tatters of black clothing and one of them pointed and accusing finger at Alex. "Heh, you make this hunt too easy, Alexander Diamondclaw. But we will still have fun defiling your corpse." Alex and Vincent exchanged one quick look. "Fine words for ones who could not frighten a poodle. You have made your threats, the Get of Fenris will now respond in kind."

The one who had pointed his finger at Alex never had a chance. Death Penalty cracked and the Dancer's brains blew out the back of his head. Regardless of if he could regenerate as a human, he was dead before he hit the ground. Vincent also had another round in the chamber before he did.

"The Get of Fenris have no need of Philodoxes when dealing with such as you, we will kill you to the last pup and bitch." The tainted werewolves transformed to Crinos before Vincent could kill another one as easily as the first. Their Crinos form was very different from Alex's, their fur was black and matted, their eyes as red as Vincent's. White foam seeped from between their jaws, and they surged forward with the strength of madness.

Alex waited for the last possible second and pulled the trigger. The Garou had made blades, and of course bows with silver tipped arrows for the last great battle they had fought against each other. An automatic sawed off shotgun, however, was something completely new to both the person holding it and the person about to feel the effect.

There was no small crack like Vincent's rifle; there was a thundering boom as a shell exploded inside the gun. The BSD who happened to be coming right for Alex then got a very unpleasant example of what prehensile digits could be used for. The storm of small silver pellets erupted from the gun's muzzle and tore into the BSD as it charged Alex. In a spectacular display of bloodshed, the thing was in pieces by the time it took it's next step. The empty slug shot of out of the gun, and a new one pushed itself into its place.

The second one was close enough to take a swipe at Alex, but he had much less practice hitting a Cetra body than Alex had at keeping one from getting hit. Alex dropped to the ground and fired. The tainted beast was caught totally by surprise as the shotgun reduced its innards to swiss cheese. It looked down at its wounds, almost as surprised as Alex that such a relatively small weapon could inflict such heinous damage so quickly. Alex, understandably, recovered much faster. His third shot took his opponent in the face point-blank, leaving little but bloody tatters behind. Vincent, meanwhile, was dealing with his own two foes, although his methods were far more fitting to his particular idiom. Vincent took a step back, then dissolved into shadows. The two fallen werewolves snarled and turned to face Alex, only to be struck from behind by a pair of shadowy figures. One of them was Tseng, although his entire body was in black relief, and Makomune's blade shone with a black parody of light. He leapt on one of the Dancer's backs and drove the blade through its head. The unfortunate monster slumped to the ground a moment later, dead without a mark on him.

The second figure was that of a giant two headed dog with eyes filled with the fires of hell. It slammed into the BSD, the hellhound might have been smaller, but it still ravenously tore into the BSD till one head crushed the skull while the other did the same for the neck. Alex looked at this odd tablue, but only for a moment, he could hear more BSDs coming.

Muttering a quick, "I don't care anymore" he turned in the direction from which the BSDs would come, and raised his shotgun. He even managed to slip a new clip into the thing before the next wave hit them. Dozens of corrupted werewolves charged them, met by Tseng's blade, the hellhound's jaws, and bursts of shotgun fire. When he ran out of ammo, Alex tossed aside the gun and shifted to Crinos. No matter how many they killed, the haunting howls and yips echoing through the caverns reminded them that there were plenty more. Eventually, Alex and Vincent were driven back into the cul de sac, in much worse condition then before. Tseng vanished as Vincent had retaken his human form, and the two lay clutching their wounds, which wouldn't heal but oozed blood and a strange greenish pus. /We're about to die.\

Vincent started laughing at Alex's morose words, as he lay on the ground, gripping Death Penalty with his bleeding hands. "No, they are. I have a plan, but it'll take a little while to execute. I'll also need your help. I'm going to ask a lot of you, but if this works, they will all die." /What do you need?\ "I need you to go back out there and give me as much time and as many corpses as you can." /If it will see this filth cleansed from my planet, I'd even give you my own.\

Alex slowly stood, shook himself, and loped to the choke point. /Mother Gaia, Sister Luna, in this tainted place, grant me your strength! HERO'S STAND!\ As the first Black Spirals drew close, Alex's feet seemed to meld partially with the stone of the cavern floor. His wounds stopped bleeding and began to heal, and he nearly doubled in size. He snarled defiance at the oncoming black tide, but his features contorted with pain as Luna's blessing took hold.

When the first twisted monstrosity came within his newly extended reach, he shredded it with foot-long, silver claws. He gutted the next one, tore a third in half and flung the pieces into the onrushing horde. His mind-voice roared in their heads even as they leapt upon him. /Though you be legion, my cause is righteous and my wrath terrible! By Gaia, Luna and Fenris, you shall not pass, nor shall one of you survive this day!\

The entire Black Spiral Dancer tribe must have turned up for the fight. They were a screaming, howling ocean, but Alexander was a mountain. Time and again they would break against him, the dead and dying trampled by the next wave. Vincent couldn't see much past Alex's massive form, but he could hear battlecries and death screams mingle in the chaos and smell the endless flow of blood from mangled corpses, mingled with the cleaner scent of Alex's own blood. Even a mountain may be worn away by the tides, and Vincent could see that he'd have to implement his plan soon.

Alex fell to one knee under the weight of his attackers, and before he could throw them off, a single Dancer leapt over him and charged Vincent, but dropped like a stone when he stood, drew Quicksilver, and put a bullet in each of its eyes. As it tried to rise, he tore out its throat. The twisted beast regrew its eyes just in time to drown in its own blood.

Turning from his victim, Vincent cast his awareness out into the unbelievable amount of blood coating the floor of the cavern. Blood was a simple thing, really. It didn't take much effort to convince it to go home, especially if you specialized in manipulating it. Hundreds of mangled corpses filled with blood and rose to their feet, missing limbs, torsos or heads forming out of bloody shadow. Animated by the hijacked blood of their tribe, the dead Dancers turned on their former comrades, turning the siege into a rout. Nearly half of the tribe was either dead or dying when Vincent struck, but those killed by his undead army stayed where they fell. Vincent slumped against the wall, a satisfied smile playing across his lips. He'd known it would work, of course. He just hadn't expected to be standing when it did.

As his fallen foes staggered to their feet and attacked his living ones, Alex fell to his knees, his vision swimming, his mind drowning in the scent of blood. His feet separated from the ground, he returned to his normal, 9-foot height, and he was dimly aware that he was about to pass out.

Not even the gifts of the Wyrm could save them from the holocaust that this section of the cave had turned into. Finally, when they were the only beings standing, the shadows departed from the undead Black Spiral Dancers, leaving the mangled corpses to drop to the ground.

Vincent looked down, he and Alex were the only two living (as much as that could be said of Vincent) beings that were left in these areas of the caves. As he became acutely aware of creaky joints and wrinkled hands, Vincent reached out once again, this time calling the blood into him. He stopped feeding when he reached his mid twenties, but the floors were still slick with blood.

"I don't care how much blood or how many souls we freed up, I never want to do that again." Alex staggered to his feet, dozens of fresh scars crisscrossing his body. /Be grateful that we are brave and have honor, for now I know what the Fields of Slaughter must be like./

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Part 3: A phantom to lead you in the summer. OR: I need a brain wash, grey matter bath.

Melkore Morningstar and Niro Rose.

Niro and Melkore were busily making their way down to the bottom of the world. Things were going fine, till some freaky guy with an extra finger on each hand got in their way. He actually had a lot of superficial similarities with Melkore. He wore a labcoat that, like Melkore's, was presumably once white, but his was even filthier. Beyond the normal "miscellaneous stains" that come standard with a life spent in a lab, his coat was stained with blood and way too short. His mini-coat and pants were covered in zippers, each presumably over a pocket(although Melkore was convinced that at least a few of them were just for show). He had blond hair, blue eyes, and glasses that would probably be best categorized as "way-too-many-focal." They consisted of about a dozen lenses of various widths and thicknesses, al on rollers so he could configure his glasses as microscopes, binoculars, or just about anything in between.

The man just looked at Melkore and Niro for a while. Finally, he and Melkore asked the same question at almost exactly the same time: "Who are you, and what the hell are you doing here?" Well, almost the same question. The stranger swapped all his 'w's with 'v's.

The man looked around the walls of North Crater and swore in a language that neither Niro nor Melkore could understand. When he finally started speaking in an understandable dialect it was still tinged with a strange accent. "Damn you, Schrödinger, you were supposed to be taking us back to the Panther's Den!"

----

(Somewhere)

"Dam it Schrö, you're supposed to clear this kind of cameo with me ahead of time." "Hey, I told you about it as you were writing it, that's ahead of time." "Okay fine, but what the crap just happened?" "Herr Doctor wanted a cameo, you've given one to everyone else."

"Okay, but maybe you should have brought this to my attention before I was writing the final battle, as it isn't exactly the best place in the world for a guy with no weapons." "So what are you going to do about it?" "What do you think I'm going to do?" "Knowing you, you're gonna call in a reset." "Damn straight that's what I'm gonna do!"

-------

"I HOPE HANS CUTS YOUR EARS OFF WITH A RUSTY CHEESE GRATER!" "Excuse me member of the ignorant masses, what are you doing in the ACROSS secret headquarters?" "Secret Headquarters? Are you guys trying to conquer ze vorld also?" "Yes." "Vhat ze hell?"

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(Not so long later)

"HEIL, MIEN FÜRHER ILLPALAZZO!"

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(The somewhere mentioned previously)

"What the hell was that?" "That's something that I'm going to have to write as well at some point." "Yeah, I always wanted to spend some time trying to conquer the world east to west instead of the other way around."

"Fine, Fine! Now tell me what I'm supposed to do with the situation? Just because you're my muse doesn't mean you can tell me what to write about." "Fine, you want me to fix the problems on the other end of things?" "It would be nice." "Okay, I'll fix it."

-------

"Niro, did you just see a hole with arms go running by? Except it was more like floating than running because even though it had arms it didn't have legs or feet." "I thought I saw some guy who looked like James except shorter and wearing brown." "Right, then. Huh, I suddenly realized I don't care any more."

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Part Four: I'm just a man, I'm not a hero, I don't care we'll carry on! OR: I know who you are, the leader of lost souls.

Sephiroth Valentine and Aeris Gaste

Aeris and Sephiroth made their way through yet another winding corridor before finally coming to a huge, open room. There were four different passages that led into the room, so apparently the other six would eventually arrive there, but there was no time to wait for them. Jenova and Cloud were both eagerly awaiting them, and things only got worse for Aeris at that point.

Sephiroth suddenly froze and because of his greater height Aeris couldn't see why. She stepped into Sephiroth's back, stumbled, and fell over. Jenova did nothing, though Cloud advanced on her, sword raised. /Don't even bother trying to beg my son for protection, he can no longer hear you!\

Aeris had heard that before, but she didn't have time to contradict Jenova. She had to deal with Cloud first, and he was once again poised to drive his sword into her body. "Now just be a good little girl and die!" Mirri called it a 'coup de grace', Aeris called it 'what you did when you had the chance'. "I'm not that good."

In the time it took Cloud to go down, his eyes as crossed as his legs in pain, Aeris was back up. Cloud managed to regain his footing a lot sooner than most people would have and he had held onto his sword. He swung it wildly at Aeris, but by that time Aeris had fully transformed. Her entire body was coated with fur, and Cloud was still "fighting the last war" as Sephiroth would say.

Cloud was fast, but Aeris feinted to the left and lunged to the right. It was harder to do then if she had been fully human, but she still pulled it off. Then she went down on all four legs, and rushed Cloud. His blade whistled through the air and sliced through Aeris' left shoulder, but Aeris repaid that action in kind. She put her head down and threw her much greater weight against Cloud.

The wound in her shoulder hurt, Cloud must have gotten the Buster Sword coated with silver after he failed to kill her last time. That would have made him quite dangerous, except that after all 800 pounds of Aeris' Crinos form bodyslammed him, Cloud went bouncing along the rocky ground and this time he did lose his grip on Zack's sword. Aeris spun toward Jenova as she levitated in the air.

She growled words regardless of if Jenova was able to comprehend them. "I'm not fond of killing, but don't think I'll hesitate for an instant dealing with you!" Aeris hadn't been able to learn how to jump like Alex could, but to a certain degree it wasn't needed. She had plenty of lupine leg muscle, and the Crinos form was made for letting you do everything a wolf could do, but better. Jenova was only hovering about 10 feet off the ground, Aeris had no trouble jumping high enough to rip and tear at Jenova's body.

She was only able to effectively slash with one of her forelimbs because of her wounded shoulder. Still, she drew blood several times before landing. As she landed she congratulated herself, and then instantly regretted it. It was such an obvious thing, Mirri, Alex, and Sephiroth had all told it to her. "Don't get cocky." She had, and now she paid for it.

While she had attacked Jenova, Cloud had gotten back up and gotten Zack's sword back. As Aeris landed he tossed it at her, and it ripped through her body. If she had been in any form but Crinos, it would have killed her instantly. As it was, the blade wedged itself in her body, nearly blinding her with pain. It didn't quite cut her in half, but it still left her a crippled mess. Sephiroth was still standing as still as a statue, his body rooted in place. Aeris knew that, barring a miracle, she was about to die.

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"Why do you try to do me harm, my son?" Sephiroth's body refused to move, no matter how his mind screamed that he had to kill the women before him. She looked nothing like his mother had, he knew that now, but knowing he was getting played like a fool only made it worse. His mother's name was Lucresia not Jenova, and she had brown hair, not silver. Sephiroth wanted to strike Jenova down, but he couldn't move a muscle.

"Why do you still try to resist me Sephiroth? I gave you life far more then that pathetic wench whose womb you came out of. After all, what would you have been without me Sephiroth? A biological experiment? A physiological freak?" She said it so very sweetly, too. Sephiroth would have sold his soul to kill her, he would have taken help from any source he could find even if he had to give up his life after he did the deed. That's when the wolf came.

Its fur was auburn, almost the same color as Aeris' wolf form. It hit Jenova from behind, but she spun around to strike back. Even as the wolf tried to get at her throat, Jenova grabbed the wolf around its neck instead. It would have been over then and there, except that Jenova was unable to get a good grip with her arm thanks to the wound the wolf had inflicted on its first attack.

Even if Jenova couldn't break the wolf's neck, she could still strangle it. Sephiroth knew that he had to help the wolf. He couldn't escape a feeling of déjà vu, but his ruminations were interrupted by a blinding flash of light.

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"Hey, Seph...?" "One, where the hell, two, what the hell, three are you doing here?" James didn't have his hat on and he took a moment to scratch his left ear before he answered. "Oh, I've got no real idea. But apparently, Schrödinger wasn't kidding when he said I'd end up everywhere and nowhere."

"James, do you know those bad movies Melkore showed you? The ones with flashbacks inside flashbacks, that's about what this feels like." "So you want me to get out of here right?" "YES!" "Oh, I'd like to be here to help, but I'm sort of busy killing SOLDIERS and Mirri's busy watching while she laughs her heads off with the joy of seeing people slaughtered twice. Since I can't do anything else, let me give you some advice I see what your problem is, and I think I've got an idea.

You see, I was training with Alex once, and I asked him about Jenova and her legacy, cause I thought it was sort of my legacy, too. Alex said it wasn't, because even though Jenova can control monsters like vampires and people, she could never control animals. Apparently they don't think complex enough thoughts for her to latch onto them." Sephiroth resisted the urge to throttle this... whatever it was of James right then and there. "In case you hadn't noticed James, I happened to be a human being, and therefore somewhat detached from the "animal" category."

James looked patronizingly at Sephiroth, now that was an experience guaranteed to kill someone's ego. "Wow Seph, Mirri was right, you do have an underdeveloped imagination. It's _your_ mind; it's easy to be an animal, hell you don't even have to be an animal that exists." As James spoke his body did not shift like Niro or Alex, he simply was. He was now a six limbed animal that had a vaguely feline body structure and thoroughly feline face, right down to the whiskers.

Not even the lack of the necessary vocal chords could make James be quiet, of course. Whatever the hell kind of animal he now was, it apparently had telepathy just so that he could keep talking. /See what I mean, it's easy! Of course now I've suddenly got this strange urge to eat celery, but that's neither here nor there. Now you just do the same!\ James exited off with a very giddy six legged stride.

------------------------------

Sephiroth was back in his mind. He decided anything was better then just standing still, so he closed his eyes and turned on a part of his mind that he hadn't consciously used in countless years. "I will not die a monster." He imagined what he needed, and slowly he felt it happening. He felt the pair of wings growing, he felt fingers turning into talons, and he felt the paralysis lifting from his body.

A silver falcon dove straight at Jenova, a bone chilling screech echoing out of its beak. Its talons slashed across Jenova's face, blinding one of her eyes. It wasn't a critical wound, but it felt right in so many ways to see that face that Jenova loved so much slashed with red lines. It felt even better to see her cover her face with both tentacles, dropping the wolf and leaving her defenseless against it. It felt best of all to see the wolf go for Jenova's throat and succeed.

-----

Sephiroth was back in his body, wonderful. For some reason, he still had wings, but this was no time to question, this was time to act. Strife was in the middle of drawing Zack's blade from Aeris' body to kill her. He was focused on that one task with sadistic glee. He didn't have a chance in hell.

Just as the Buster Sword was about to bite into Aeris' flesh, a bolt of lightning struck Cloud, sending him sprawling. That got the attention of both of both of Sephiroth's opponents as they turned to face him while he finally descended down the slope. "Jenova, you forget one of the cardinal rules of the malevolently ambitious. **Never** create a superweapon that can be used against you."

Strife growled with animalistic rage as he looked at Sephiroth. "What do you think you are, an angel?" Then he leapt at him, Buster Sword flashing. Sephiroth easily blocked his overhand blow, and then did the last thing his opponent expected. Last time, Sephiroth had been trying to keep his distance; this time, instead of withdrawing backwards in hopes of claiming some high ground, Sephiroth pressed on. "No, but here's your chance to fly." He shoved upward, sending Strife several feet into the air, then executed a spinning slash as his opponent came back down.

Strife, of course, had no problem blocking it, but the impact sent him flying towards the ceiling. Jenova brought herself around to hover between Sephiroth and her puppet while he recovered.

"Can't you see that it's hopeless? Your Cetra bitch lies dying. Just like soon all of the inhabitants, no, this very world itself will!" Sephiroth slowly took one step towards Jenova. "She lies wounded. That girl won't quit while she can draw breath. None of my Seraphim will. Me, I've got a different problem.

Thanks to what Hojo did to me, thanks to what you did to me, I feel like I live in a world made of cardboard. Always taking constant care not break something, to break someone. Never allowing myself not to lose control, even for a moment or someone could die! But you can take it, can't you Jenova? What we have here is a rare opportunity for me to cut lose and show you just how powerful I really am."

Sephiroth twisted and made as if to sheath Masamune in preparation to use both of his hands for magic, but he somehow missed his target. He had been putting his heightened senses to good use keeping track of exactly where Strife was, and it had paid off. His blow at Sephiroth's "unprotected" back slammed up against Masamune and stopped short.

Sephiroth normally knew that you should never show your back to a foe; that was right there in Combat 101. Granted, Sephiroth had decided before this fight even started that he would be using the rule books as so much kindling. That's why once again he managed to take Strife by surprise when he jumped backwards, keeping his hands tight on Masamune's hilt and striving to force it upwards. Strife couldn't move aside without letting Masamune remove his head, so he held his ground, but while he could block Masamune, he couldn't block Sephiroth. Their combined weight forced him to the ground, and Sephiroth was prepared to go down. He rolled off his foe, needing to twist his body only once to find himself in perfect position. His blade arced out and drew blood as it sliced through Strife's leg. His opponent was quick to respond and Sephiroth rolled one more time to avoid an attempt at decapitation before rising to his feet to take a more traditional fighting stance.

Strife looked at his wounded leg, realized that he would have to finish things fast before his found himself weakening. He felt Jenova's will wash over him, granting him strength and speed well beyond what his body should have been able to produce. "OMNISLASH!" Strife leapt, dashed, and just generally flailed the Buster sword around, trusting in brute strength and the weight of the sword to see him through. Sephiroth stood his ground, blocking each stroke and spinning with the force of the blows, his lightning reflexes consistently putting Masamune in place to deflect every strike, sparks flashing at every meeting of the blades.

Sephiroth met Strife's final, overhead slash head-on. Sephiroth jumped backwards and readjusted his fighting stance. "Silver's mate in five moves." Strife edged closer to Sephiroth slowly. "What are you babbling about?"

Sephiroth slowly ran his left hand as far along Masamune's length as it would easily go. "You don't have a chance against us. Masamune, don't you feel sorry for the Buster Sword? All Strife can do is wave it about with every ounce of his strength like it's a log. No blade deserves that. A sword can live or die depending on its master. Let's put it out of its misery, after all I'm slightly worried about the woman I love. Silver's mate in five moves. Masamune and I are going to cut through the air five more times, and then you are going to die."

"Bullshit!"

Sephiroth placed both hands on Masamune's hilt and smiled.

-----

Aeris watched the fight through eyes blurred by pain and blood loss. "Wherever there is light, there is darkness. Silver Eclipse!" It might have just been some kind of delusion caused by Aeris' wounds but for a moment it looked like Sephiroth vanished. Then he reappeared, swung Masamune once through empty air, and sheathed it.

Cloud Strife's body split into six pieces. Both of his arms slid off of his torso, both of his legs came off at the knee cap, apparently severed by the same stroke, and then his head fell from his shoulders. All six parts of his body as well as the Buster Sword fell into the pulsating Lifestream below them, then Sephiroth began to slowly walk over to her.

----

"Are you okay?" Aeris nodded weakly, the wound looked bad, but Sephiroth was no expert on animals. Still, if the nodding was weak, there was nothing pathetic in the spirit behind it; Sephiroth could trust in her determination to keep her alive.

The puppet dealt with and Aeris checked, Sephiroth finally turned to Jenova. "I have only one word left for you. Burn. SUPERNOVA!" It put James' ring of fire to shame. This was not red flame, this was flame so hot that it burned white. Nor was it a simple ring of it, it was a tidal wave. Jenova's scream echoed long his ears, and he enjoyed every single second of it. There was no ash left when the flame subsided.

----

The Seraphim

Part Five: Son when you grow up, would you be the saviour of the broken, the beaten, and the damned? OR: Burn the land and boil the sea, you can't take the sky from me.

"This doesn't help anything you realize?" Niro as always was practical. Sephiroth slowly traced a circle with his eyes around the scared rocks that were all that remained of Jenova before he gave an honest answer with a smile on his face. "It made me feel better, that's something few things in the world can do." Niro checked his gun, he hadn't fired it once, and thus felt somewhat cowed by the others with their war stories.

But cowed was hardly the right word for Niro, he never backed down, he just faded into the background more. He did so now, though his voice did not fade away at all. "Just saying that we're all going to die when that rock slams into us. All we're looking at is mutual assured destruction."

Alex pawed the ground in irritation, he had been greatly impressed by Sephiroth and Aeris' depiction of Jenova's death and resented taking the focus off that event, hatred can often outlive the hated. /No matter what we do, we can't fight that thing. Let us rejoice that we have slain the Wyrm and in doing so assured our position in Valhalla.\ Aeris looked down into the pool of lifestream into which Cloud had dropped.

Its existence was a statement on how deep the caves of North Crater went. The group was now so far down that they had reached an area were the Planet's wounds had never healed. Looking at it, Aeris shuddered slightly. "If only I still had the White Materia. I think, I know, I could summon Holy if I had it. That could fight Meteor, fight and win now that Jenova is gone. If only I hadn't dropped it."

"Take it." Mirri opened her jacket and removed a perfectly round object that looked like it was an oversized white marble rather than materia. Six jaws fell slack, only James was immune to the surprise of the moment. Niro even went so far as to take of his glasses to make sure he was seeing what he thought he was. "Mirri... where did you get this?"

Mirri shrugged, her entire body practically radiating gratification, like a cat at a priceless (and defenseless) bird convention. "You gave it to me back in Bone Village." "How..." What Aeris couldn't put to words Vincent could. He slapped his face hard enough to shatter his red sunglasses (which had by some quirk of luck survived up to this point) into pieces of broken glass and bent frames.

"After you almost died, I went down to the bottom of the lake, got that thing, and climbed back out, I don't need to breath and my claw made getting down easy, it was only about 20 feet deep all told. I felt if it was important enough that you should have made Master... I mean Sephiroth upset it must have been worth getting wet over. Then I put in a pocket of my jacket... which I gave to you."

Aeris shuddered slightly. "I threw that jacket away when I got new clothing." Mirri finished. "Which I searched through, you wouldn't believe the kind of things James leaves laying around if you don't pick up after him, shoes, food, perfectly good ammo clips. It may have been my maternal instincts, but I couldn't help looking through your discarded clothes, and low and behold, this is what I found."

"Un. Fucking. Believable." Melkore might not believe it, but James did. "Oh come on, it's not like it was impossible. If anyone could have done this Mirri would have." Before anything else could be said, Aeris took the white materia from Mirri. "I released the seals back in the City of the Ancients, I should be able to use this anywhere."

Aeris held the White Materia and closed her eyes, everyone held their breath for what felt like a full sixty seconds but there was no visible response. "No, damn it! I can't believe after everything I've been through I'm still not strong enough!" /Don't blame yourself because it takes a pack to kill an elk.\ Though of all Alex's lupine phrases this one was probably the easiest to understand, with everyone going through the depletion of adrenaline and the general post-combat fugue, it lacked the inspirational touch he might have hoped for. "Which means we should do what exactly?"

Alex barked a laugh. /We only happen to be standing in the very middle of Gaia's most corrupted Caern. Even with the Wyrm herself slain, the taint still hangs in the air. You expect to be able to work gifts here without interference?\ Even Aeris was on her last couple of nerves, a rare occurrence. "I could shift just fine when I was fighting!" Alex gave her a deadpan(for a wolf) look.

/Shifting isn't a gift of Gaia, it's the birthright of the Garou. If, however, we're going to activate the power of Holy in here, we're going to have to find a focus to gather our power in, one that won't be obstructed, or better yet would be strengthened by the corruption of Gaia.\ Eyes slowly turned in the inevitable direction whenever anyone had a problem, towards Sephiroth.

"Just don't tell me we have to hold hands and chant." Alex proceeded to use his claws to make a rough circle in ground around them. /That should be enough. Also, Child of Gaia, you should shift to your Lupus form, even if it's not your true shape you will be more easily able to connect with your gnosis.\ Aeris looked at Alex, and then at the white Materia. "And I'm going to hold onto the White Materia with paws how?" Alex snorted in what Aeris felt to be a very unsupportive manner. /You expect me to know? This is the first situation I've ever heard of where a Garou has needed a materia.\

Sephiroth took off a wrist bangle that he had been wearing and proceeded to remove several mastered purple materia and one glowing yellow one from it. "I'm just eyeballing it, but this should work. Shift." Aeris tossed him the White Materia which he socketed into bangle and then carefully attached it to her left fore leg. "Now what?" /Now close your eyes and concentrate.\ "Yes everybody remember to think happy thoughts, till we all start to fly." "Melkore…" /It will actually work much better if you focus on what drives you.\

----

/Not only will I destroy you Jenova, I'll cleanse the world of all of your works and pawns as well.\

----

/To protect everyone and everything I can. There is a balance between life and death, we must strive so that we only kill to save life.\

---

/What can humanity hope to accomplish as a mindless mass? Even some of the lowest forms of life understand there must be leaders. They can be ants, large cats, or primates, someone must be in charge. It matters very little in the whole whether the people choose the leader or the leader chooses the people, someone must rise above the ordinary. Some are born great like Sephiroth, some achieve greatness like Aeris, some have greatness thrust upon them like Vincent, and some like me, are simply great.\

----

/Lucresia. Lucresia, for you, for your son, for your life, for your dreams, I will give everything, I would do anything for you.\

----

/And hunters we shall be, for thee Fenris, for thee. I'll send forth a river unto thee, teeming with blood and souls shall it be. In they name, I am the last sight thine enemies see. In the name of Gaia, Luna, and Fenris, so shall it be!\

----

/No way this is going to work. After everything else we've done we're still going to get squished like bugs just because it'll be funny to the gods that play pool with our planets.\

----

/From survival flows opportunity. So we must survive, and to do that we must stop Meteror.\

----

/You know if this works I should show Alex a oujia, oujy, ojie? Whatever, one of those boards. Of course we're trying to save the world not find out some trivial piece of information. So what drives me? I don't know, you just do what feels right, too much over thinking is bad for you. The best laid plans of sentients and sapients after all.

Come on, James, would it kill you to concentrate for once? This isn't even Sephiroth telling you to be serious, this is you telling you to be serious! Think about the giant rock that is currently on a collision course with this planet, which, all things considered, is a pretty nice place to live. Giant rock, giant rock... Dum de dum dum dum, giant rock dum de dum dum dum, gonna blow it up!\

----

James Firecat's ears rose to their very peak, the fur on them standing on end.

---

Behind his glasses Niro Rose's eyes fluctuated even more widely than normal before for the briefest moment going simply milk white.

-----

Melkore Morningstar could feel each and every string on Sylvia vibrate with the raw energy in the air.

---

Alexander Diamondclaw literally gave his all as he poured forth his rage and gnosis into one single surge of raw power.

----

Vincent Valentine could feel his body telling him that he was way too old for this kind of thing. He could feel his blood boil inside his skin. He could also feel it boiling outside his skin as in certain places old wounds tore themselves back open and blood pulsed forth. Interestingly enough the bloody splotches on his skin always seemed to take the form of a tear drop. The Turk promised himself then and there that he would try to have less to do with the occult for the remainder of his death.

----

For the shortest moment possible Mirri could swear that she saw her parents. But she dismissed it and got back to concentrating, she knew she wasn't the first person to have odd flashbacks under heavy physical and psychological exertion.

---

Aeris wished that she had more experience in Lupine form. There were so many different strange scents in the air, and she couldn't tell which she simply hadn't noticed before, and which were now being generated.

----

Sephiroth felt it happening again. Just like when he had fought Jenova he could feel his power rising towards its peak. Except that it didn't stop there. Because it wasn't just his power, it was everyone's. He could actually feel the different auras surrounding the power that was going through him. The optimism of James', the confidence of Mirri's, the hope of Aeris', the strength of Alex's, the calmness of Niro's, the desperation of Vincent's, and the… Melkore-ness of Melkore's. Even his enhanced body could only take so much. He had to let it go, and soon. He reached deep into being, and found the words. "I am becoming death, destroyer of worlds. BLADE OF HEAVEN!"

----

As soon as Sephiroth said those words the Lifestream below them began to bubble. It didn't last very long however before the bubbling gave way to something that was impossible to find a name for. It was as if the Lifestream was a living being in and of its self. It twisted snakelike as it began to make its way up from the depths of North Creator, somehow able to take each turn it came to without the slightest problem. With each passing second it grew larger, till it was just barely able to slip through the opening of North Creator into open air.

----

It was a single rising column of solid green that could not be stopped. It went straight up from the Planet, and slammed into meteor.

It was like Melkore's cannon slug hitting the shield around North Crater. The column of green vanished, but not before the rock it hit against was blown into a million fragments so small they were not visible to the unenhanced eye, and all of them flying off in the opposite direction of the Planet due to the transfer of momentum.

-----

"I would like to take a moment and say, HOLY SHIT!"

"Don't mock it Melkore, I think it worked."

"It did work, Mirri, I can feel it."

"Oh, Sephiroth, you're putting on some lovely plumage on this time of year."

"I still have those?"

"Kind of hard not to notice them."

"How bad are they?"

"Bad? Those things look fantastic!"

"James just said they're fantastic, let me guess, 20 foot wingspan?"

"Not more then sixteen. On the other hand, now you could do your own duet of "ebony and ivory"."

"They aren't even the same color?"

"Don't worry, I think they look fine on you. Now all you need are the pairs to cover your feet and eyes, which cause anyone who looks directly into them to burst into flames."

"Mirri, I thought you said you hadn't studied theology?"

"I lied. I do that."

"Yeah they look fine on me now, but what about if our children have them?"

"Sephiroth, you're marrying Aeris. I'll give you some advice that I'm following. Worry more about the tail."

"Why would you have to worry about that? James is sterile."

"Hey, we just beat a several thousand year old alien; what are the odds I can't beat mother nature?"

"How do you plan to do that, let me guess..."

"Don't even start on it Melkore, besides you should be smart enough to know, hell smart doesn't even come into it."

"Let me guess! Let me guess! Test tube and a womb with a view. Guess it's gonna be tradition in my family."

"Oh god, that's the worst joke I've ever head."

"Don't worry Melkore I'll only let him say it once for every time you've gone beyond the bounds of propriety."

"It's going to be a long nine months, and you won't even have to carry the kid. You've got this planned from all angles, don't you?"

"I always do."

"Enough, let's get out of here. And remember, you still don't have permission to die yet and none of you want to find out what I'll do if you disobey orders. Let's go, I need to sleep. For a week."

End Chapter 36

FN: James must have a score card where he's marking off making an analogy to every single famous cat in literature. His line before using "double blind" makes reference to "Schrödinger's Cat" with the original meaning of the phrase and the most likely even more famous Cheshire Cat. Some of you might notice Sephiroth channeling Superman for a couple moments there right before he really gets into the fight. What can I say, it seemed appropriate and I'm sure some people (like Jenova) found the irony killing. Of course it's also proof of just what a versatile actor George Newbern is. Props to anyone who knows what character Sephiroth barrowed Silver Eclipse from. Sephiroth's line before he blows away meteor ("...Death destroyer of worlds") is what Robert Oppenheimer said on seeing the worlds first atomic bomb tested in Los Almios. In retrospect I probably could have fit in a lot more connections between Sephiroth and nuclear weapons, ohh well too late now. On the subject of Alex's prayer, in no way was this meant as a snarky passive aggressive aside on the subject of monotheistic religions which worship a deity who came back from death, whose next appearance will herald the end of the world, and promises the people who die serving him will go to paradise. Fenris worship is in many ways, much more up front about it's policy of slaying off those it considers its enemies and taking their land for your own. Of course some of you may not find that honesty refreshing, but my one track mind likes a religion that doesn't send mix messages. Also by and large I find it hard to imagine a "Buddy Fenris" hanging from the rear view window on my car. (In part because I don't have a car so don't know what it's rear view mirror would look like granted) Which is a shame in some ways because it would be an absolutely bitchin way to declare my love for this world and hate for the people who are trying to ruin it at the same time. Which brings me to my next topic I've heard "Masamune" translated as "Blade of Heaven" or close enough, in case you were wondering why Sephiroth used the phrase.

**OWAN: My head hurts. Sorry about lateness of update, but I just can't get that broken up about it since we seem to have scared off one of our few regulars when we turned the Gold Saucer into a karaoke bar. I wish James would spellcheck his author notes, since I can't in all conscience do so. If you're actually reading, please let me know. I'd hate to think we were just one of the endless thousands of bits of wasted bandwidth on If you ask me later, I will blame this bout of insecurity on the upcoming midterms. Evil, evil midterms.**


	36. Chapter 36

Twilight Perfection

Final Chapter Number 36: Come sound the trumpet, prepare the feast, and make the joyful shout to he who slew the beast!

Vincent descended the stairs, anticipation mixed with fear in each step. He had written and left her a note that explained everything, as best as anyone could explain anything about the impossible situation that Vincent was in. "Congratulations, you've been dead for the last 30 years, our son has grown up, and just about everyone we ever knew is dead. Oh and I'm a vampire now, and so are you." Vincent had said it considerably more tactfully then that, but the only letters he was used to writing were those that were made from magazine clippings and typically ended with "Or you'll never see your loved one(s) again." (It was pure hell to find a reasonably sized pair of parentheses but a small pair would due in most situations.)

Suffice to say it was hardly the work of a great artist, but it got to the point. There was a knife on the table as well, and the note was painfully clear on what to do with it. If she couldn't cope with the shock of it all, take the knife and plunge it into her heart or slice off her head. If she did so, Vincent let her know in the note that he wouldn't be too far behind.

He opened the door, and she was sitting up on the table waiting for him. She had red eyes now, just like Vincent did. She held Vincent's knife in her right hand and snapped the blade with ease thanks to her vampiric strength. "I waited for you."

Vincent couldn't find the words, hell, he couldn't find the facial expressions. He just stood there dumbly. Then he buried his face in his hands and cried tears of blood. "Vincent, let me see your face again." Vincent moved aside his hands, and he felt Lucresia's tongue lick the tears from his face. That was when he was finally able to smile again.

"I made a horrible boytoy didn't I?"

"I'm sure you'll make a wonderful husband."

"Husband?" Vincent said the word with faked apprehension, Gaia, it felt good to be able to fake that particular emotion rather than having to actually experience it. "What have I gotten myself into? Guess I'm going to need to do more than sneak in time for a quick game of 'the spinster and the well hung auditor' with you."

"I'm willing to take things slowly if that would help make the transition easier for you. I don't think I have much respect left for 'the sanctity of marriage,' as you obviously understand. So, exactly how good is our night vision?"

In the time it used to take him to draw a breath, Vincent drew Quicksilver, twisted his arm at an angle that would have been impossible for a human to achieve, and fired. The one light bulb in the room exploded in a shower of glass, leaving the two cloaked in darkness. It didn't get in their way in the slightest.

----

"Hey." "Hi, my name's Melkore Morningstar, I saved the world!" It was a sleazy tavern in Lower Midgar, hardly befitting to someone who had saved the world. Sadly, life was anything but fair to Melkore Morningstar: he had saved the world, now he was going out of business. What with the recent peace and the announcement that there wouldn't be any more SOLDIERS made, "illegal arms dealer" wasn't such a great profession anymore.

It just didn't make sense for an arms dealer to ensure a lasting peace. Still, things might be about to take a turn for the better. The woman who had just sat down next to him looked good enough. Blond hair, blue eyes, and about his height, that was always a plus when you got right down to it. More importantly, she even laughed at Melkore's introduction.

"I don't think I can top that, but I'm Liz."

Melkore took a sip from his horrid beer. "I think your shirt's wrong." Melkore had been careful to only take a momentary (okay, so _slightly_ longer than it took to read the inscription) look Liz's black shirt. It bore the message "these are not the breasts you are looking for." Melkore steeled himself for some sort of assault on his person. When no such assault occurred, his brain did a ridiculous little celebration dance at finding an attractive woman with a personality that was nothing like Mirri's.

Liz laughed. "Why are you so sure?"

Melkore paused, and took a good long moment to consider how to word his answer. "Why not be? So, what you doing here since you evidently aren't trying to drink away your problems?"

"I came here to cruise for guys." Wow, apparently life did give you neon signs concerning your future sometimes.

"Do you have any interests in eligible arms dealers with both a PHD and an M.D.?" Apparently she did.

----

Alex had scented the female long before she arrived, but he didn't feel any particular inclination to go out and meet her. His wounds still hadn't quite healed, but that didn't really surprise him; wounds left by Black Spiral Dancers were slow to heal, even more so when they used their unholy gifts to inflict them. Alex took stock as he stood and shook himself; he was likely to have a few new scars to show for his ordeal.

He turned to regard the female as she crested the ridge. She was smaller then Alex was, but that was completely unremarkable. Females were almost always smaller then males, and Alex was one of the largest wolves on the planet. "So, what are you doing here?"

The female seemed surprised by the question, but she replied politely. "Showing my respects for a great warrior. He left this place undefended to face the Wyrm with a pack of humans. It seems that every pack has sent someone to show their respects. I come on behalf of the Mountain Twilight pack. Who are you and what pack do you come from?" In this situation Melkore would say that Alex "had her hooked and only need to reel her in" Alex called it the natural situation.

"I am Diamond Claw, and I come from a pack of humans who call themselves Seraphim. I am returning to my post. What is your name?" Alex had never read any works on evolution, (granted his skill at reading human at all was only marginal) he didn't need to, he was much more familiar with the concept beneath it then any human would be.

"I am Morning Glory."

"Morning Glory of Mountain Twilight, you are welcome to hunt in my territory for as long as you wish."

"Mountain Twilight is a large pack, they will not miss me much on the hunt, and will miss me even less after the hunt." Alex didn't need some human scientist to tell him what he already knew: power was nature's greatest aphrodisiac.

----

"Hey Mirri don't we need, well you know, witnesses for this?" James was not dressed the way one would expect of a man at his own wedding. To be fair, he had clearly made an effort: he had patted down his red jacket, removed his hat, combed his hair, brushed his ears, and otherwise cleaned his clothing and even gone so far as to put on a red tie.

Mirri had swapped her normal outfit for her parade uniform: white slacks, a full jacket, and a black sash bearing her medals, along with the winged sword emblem of the Seraphim. She had apparently known about the small church out in the middle of the desert around the Golden Saucers since she was young. Mirri and James were the only people in it, and so they were basically waiting around for the priest to show up. James was much more flustered then Mirri was. "Are you 100 sure we don't need witnesses for this?"

Mirri shrugged. "Nah, that's just conventional wisdom." "Shouldn't we have invited Seph and the others?" "Aeris didn't invite us to her wedding." "Mirri, I might be wrong, but I don't think Aeris and Sephiroth have gotten married yet." "Well they will soon. Not inviting them is a calculated way to get back at them either for not inviting me, or as more likely, for making me be a bridesmaid." "What's wrong with that?" "I'd have to wear a dress."

As far as Mirri was concerned, dresses and high heels were the eastern equivalent of the age old practice in Wutai of foot binding. It had not been hard to convert James to this point of view after asking him to try and run a mile wearing high heels and a skirt. Suffice to say, Mirri was quite pleased with the way her relationship looked to be going.

The lack of holy men present, however, was starting to make James a bit twitchy. "Are you sure that he'll be able to find this place?" Mirri smirked and put a calming hand on James' shoulder. "Don't worry, he did his own wedding out here, he knows where it is." That statement just brought up all kinds of questions that James wasn't about to ask of Mirri.

The first one was that, since when were priests married? Priests were (in James' mind) supposed to be older, distinguished men who clearly were not married, nor had they ever been so. The second question was, since when were priests able to officiate over their own marriages, if they even had them? James didn't have the tightest grasp on the concept of religion, but priests were supposed to marry other people, not themselves.

After all, if, as Melkore had told him doctors couldn't prescribe their own medications, then priests shouldn't be able to marry themselves. Granted, Melkore had prescribed his own Jenova cell injections and mako enhancements, but no one would ever accuse Melkore of being ethical. Just as James was about to go into full panic mode (a very rare event), the priest arrived. James could hear the sound of a motorcycle pulling up outside the church, and then he could hear the sound of its engine dieing.

What James heard next could be described as "impious words" and very many of them. When they subsided, the voice continued in a manner little more suited for a priest. "Don't do this to me Angelina XV! Needle Noggin, how could you forget to get her oil checked?" The church door flew open, and the priest walked in.

He was wearing black, but it was a black that was slightly bordering on blue. He had blackish blue hair, and there were two crosses embroidered on the arms of his shirt like cufflinks. Of course, much more noticeable was the HUGE cross that he was carrying over his shoulder. It must have been longer then the priest was tall, and it was wrapped up in paper, with enough black straps on it for a straightjacket, but James didn't question that.

Nor did he question that the priest was smoking, or that the priest had lit his match with which to light his cigarette by striking it on his cross. If he was a priest that Mirri knew, it made sense that he would be unconventional. He took one look at James and let out a loud groan. "Oh, God, there are two of them. Just please tell me you keep yours away from sharp objects and firearms." Interestingly, the priest's eyes were focused on James' eyes when he said that and not his ears.

"Sorry Nick, he's an idealist. You know the type; they're always trying." When he turned his attention to Mirri he let out an even louder groan. Mirri quickly put a stop to that. "Put a sock in it, don't tell me you expected me to wear a dress?" Nick (the priest) spat out his cigarette, and stomped on it. "Well, Dominique bet me that you would get married in uniform, and you know how she is when she's right about something like this."

Mirri's smirk widened. "Oh well, too bad for you. If God talks to you then you should know better than to bet against me." Nick said a few more impious words, then pulled out a book. It was not the Bible, it was "Ordination for Sinners" by "Pope Vash I" and James made a mental note to read it some day.

Nick flipped through the pages, and finally found what he was looking for. "Okay then, we'll be doing this as agreed upon by Vatican VI and Popess Heinkle I. Let's begin. We are here today to join this man… cat… thing, and this lady… bride… Mirri in the bonds of holy matrimony. Know that this is simply recognition of your love by the world; it should not be the birth of your love. For as it is said in the Newer Testament, book of Decimals 'without true love there can be no marriage, with it there can be nothing else.' With that said, yadda yadda yadda, love and peace, yadda yadda yadda, grace of god... let's get to the point."

Nick began to flip through the book saying yet more impious words with a minor blasphemy thrown in. "Needle Noggin, how long do you go on in this thing for?" Finally Nick found what he was looking for. "Here we go, Mirri do you?"

"Yep."

"Do you..."

"James Firecat, and yes."

"Okay then, I now pronounce you woman and husband, Mirri you may now kiss James Firecatwarrior, your groom."

Mirri did, but eventually Nick separated them with his huge cross. "AHEM! I was promised 4,000 gill, COM, 'Cash On Matrimony' and I'm definitely going to need it to repair my bike." Mirri pulled out a bag of coins and tossed it to Nick. He started to walk out at once. "God's mercy be with you eternally! Make sure to invite me to the real wedding!" Mirri let go of James so quickly that he almost dropped to the floor as she turned to Nick, hissing like a wet cat.

"Real wedding? What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

Nick still didn't bother to turn around, though he did stop his progression out of the church. "Real wedding, the one with all the pomp and ceremony and cherubs descending from the sky with you surrounded by a nimbus of light. You know, the wedding that counts."

"I thought this wedding counted!"

Nick did turn around, and took a very long drag on the cigarette that he took the time to light before responding. "It does. In the eyes of God you two are now husband and wife, or wife and husband, or however the hell you want to say it. You can live together and have it not be considered a sin, and all the other things that living together includes. If anyone argues with that one, I'll explain it to them." As he said that he took time to pat his cross, and then caress it tenderly, in the exact same way James had seen Melkore handle Sylvia.

"But in the eyes of the government, you need to have a witness for this kind of thing to hold. Seeing each other in the hospital, not that I expect either of you will end up in that particular situation, giving money to each other in the will, again unlikely, filing taxes jointly, that kind of stuff, you need to have a witness or two present for."

"Why?" James began to back away from Mirri; the expression on her face was starting to scare even him.

Nick took a very long drag from his cigarette but was careful not to exhale in Mirri's direction. "Well you see, regardless of any said separation of church and state, many laws still emanate from biblical teachings. You know: don't kill, don't steal, don't bare false witness, don't rape, don't commit adultery. The rules about marriages come from the Bible, in order for it to count we need to have three people present in order for it to count as a marriage."

"One, two, three." Mirri slowly counted off the people present in the church.

Nick took another drag from his cigarette, though this one looked like it was mainly to relieve his stress over explaining the bad news to Mirri. "Actually, there are only two people here, not that I'm not counting out our cat eared friend, it's me who doesn't count. Priests don't count for secular purposes. There are upsides, like never having to file taxes, and there are downsides, like you wouldn't _believe_ how hard it was to get people to understand that I'm married. So, anyway, I don't count as a person, legally speaking. Before you can be married by the law, we need somebody else present, preferably a person for each of you..."

There was a very long pause as James began to look around the church as if expecting some divine intervention to suddenly arrive and make everything all right. Amazingly just as his eyes were coming to rest on the church's statue of Christ, the help arrived.

"Hey, Catwarrior! I'm glad I'm not late!" James head whipped around as Reno, Rude and Elena walked through the doors of the church. Mirri, looking for any excuse to be done with the wedding and move on to the marriage, forwent her usual hostility.

"Reno, I'll ask what you're doing here in a moment, first, Nick, does this renegade from the human race bring the person count up enough to make this marriage legal in the eyes of the state? I mean there are three of them, so between Reno's id, Elena's ego, and Rude's superego we should have one reasonable facsimile of a person."

For an answer, Nick gratefully pulled out a piece of paper with all kinds of writing on it, and signed his own name on it. "Yeah, that covers rather nicely. Wonderful, Mirri you can just sign here, and have your husband sign his name or leave a paw print next to the appropriate blank."

Mirri took the contract from Nick's hands along with a pen that James noticed had "GHG" written on it in silver and began to sign her name in the correct place, and didn't look up as she spoke. "By the way, Reno, now would be a good time to explain what exactly you're doing here, and what you're doing back in uniform."

Of course it didn't really matter what Reno was dressed in, he generated a field of scruffiness around him that could have rumpled a helmet. "Come on Catwarrior, you say that like our destinies aren't intertwined by the forces of the gods above and Lifestream below!" Mirri handed the pen to James, and fixed Reno with a glare. "Okay, let's hear the real answer this time Reno, it isn't too late for me to maim you as a personal matter rather than for business reasons."

Reno played with his sunglasses before answering. "Fine then, back when I was courting..."

"You mean stalking."

"Stalking, courting, tomato, to-mah-to, they're all red fruit to me. I looked through your personal Shinra file, saying that I suspected you of treason, who would have guessed I would have been right? Anyway, looking back on that day, I remembered reading that your parents got married in this church. With that information, and knowing what a creature of habit you are, I knew you would get married here, so after Meteor was destroyed we've basically been staking this place out waiting for you to go in, and then for a priest to arrive. We had a pool going on how long your ceremony would last, I won. Also I knew that you might be running into the problem that you had just a few moments ago, and I brought these guys along to solve your problem. Maybe do something to make up for all the ones we've caused. So anyways, in my position as best man, me and the guys are gonna take the place of the band that I've noticed you haven't hired."

Nick took one look at them, and then bolted for the door "KEEP THE PEN!" Was the last thing anyone heard besides the sound of a motor cycles' engine revving to life after several attempts and then buzzing off. James looked at the pen as he clicked the small push button that caused the ink filled tip to retract and extend. As he did so he noticed that the words on the side of the pen changed from "GHG" to "This world is made of hate and war!" weird slogan for a priest have on his pen.

"Now explain why you're in Shinra Blue. I thought you quit." Reno stroked his blue uniform like the old friend it would soon become.

"I did. But then I got a new offer, there's something about a 50 raise from a boss without a stick the length of Masamune up his ass to get a man to think about taking his job back. So as a representative of the New Shinra Mako Electric and Other Forms of Power Corporation, that's NSMEOFPC for those keeping score at home, I'm here to tell you that you and your friends have been pardoned, hell President Reeve Shinra will probably be giving you some medals fairly soon."

Mirri just barely managed to stifle a laugh. "Reeve? Reeve 'don't look at me I just work here', is now president of Shinra? How the hell did that happen?" Reno shrugged helplessly as if to say "bureaucracy: what can you do" before giving the closest thing to an answer he had.

"Apparently, when the dust settled in Midgar, he was the most senior Shinra official left standing, so he went from head of Urban Development, or glorified public relations, to president in one fell swoop. Of course his first act was to rubber stamp a bunch of pardons. His second was order me to let you guys know that after one or two months of paid vacation for services rendered, he would appreciate you Seraphim either tendering resignations or returning to service."

That didn't stack up with what Mirri knew. "Who is he kidding? I know for a fact that Shinra fired me about the same time they declared me a terrorist wanted dead or alive." Reno's smile split his face. "Well, when you're new to the job and running a company the size of Shinra, it's practically expected that you're going to end up misfiling certain pieces of paper. They get delivered to the Turk Lounge by mistake, and some reckless person spills brandy on them, and then there's a spark, and -poof- nothing but ash. After all, none of you ever formally resigned, of course Sephiroth was technically declared dead, but I get the feeling that Reeve is going to need some empty graves soon and we all know the best way to get them is to exhume the current occupants."

Ah, the complicated morals of the world that the Seraphim now found themselves in. "So, what's Reeve's angle?"

"This is Reeve we're talking about. Suddenly having 'Shinra' legally become your last name doesn't make you an evil tyrant; it also takes a big gap in the skull where your brain should be. If you ask me, Reeve's angle is 'don't get killed by Sephiroth and his Seraphim' and possibly make the world a better place while he's at it."

Who could have ever guessed that of all the people in Midgar, an honest man would be left in charge of Shinra? "Well I suppose after I spend some time putting Corel back together I could see my way to another military term, someone is going to have to give this New Shinra organization more than goodwill to spread around. James how do you like the idea?" James pondered it for a moment. "Does it mean that everyone in Midgar isn't going to be shooting at me any more?"

It was actually a much more complicated question than James had intended it to be. "A significantly smaller portion of Midgar will be shooting at you. And those who keep doing it probably won't be able to aim that well."

"Sounds good to me!"

"Well Reno, you mentioned being the band, but I'll be damned if I'm going to listen to your singing. I'll give you ten seconds to disappear." Reno saluted lazily before running like hell.

----

"Okay folks, when the music plays, it is not going to be a drill!" Mirri, back in her traditional white jacket and black pants, was "helping" Sephiroth in that way that made him wish she wasn't. Somehow, having Mirri busily planning out his wedding did not put him at ease. This also had to do with the way that Mirri was delegating the task to Sephiroth's fellow Seraphim.

Sephiroth could distinctly remember a conversation he had with James not so long ago. "James, what are you doing with all those barrels of gunpowder?" "Mirri put me in charge of the special defects!" Sephiroth had been tempted to correct James, but the smile he had given him while announcing his new title had stopped him short. There was gunpowder, and James was out there doing something with it that would in some way be part of his wedding. Yep, "special defect" kind of summed it up.

"Don't worry about it; one of the first things I bought myself when I realized I was in love was a vest with C4 sewed into the lining. Contemplating suicide is a normal part of the matrimonial process." The good news was that Vincent Valentine seemed much more at ease with himself, the bad news was that he was succeeding at being much more at ease making candid conversation with Sephiroth Valentine, who would prefer as few people had that skill as possible.

The worse news was that he hadn't come alone. "Hello, Sephiroth." "Hello, Lucresia." The two took one quick moment to examine each other's eyes. At least with Vincent they had been able to get to know each other as comrades in arms before they had to get around to knowing each other as father and son.

Even then, well, Vincent was quite understanding about the situation. They both knew that they were two different independent people, and Vincent clearly understood that he would never truly be the man whom Sephiroth looked up to as a father. Sephiroth in turn was man enough to admit that Mirri happened to correct when she said that as he had grown up he had simply found fatherly role models where he could: Dr. Gaste, President Shinra, Tseng, it wasn't that hard, after all someone had to teach him how to swing a sword.

But on the other hand, mothers were supposed to maintain closer, more emotional relationships with their children. So, needless to say, unless for some reason there was another war where he could get to know his mother, their time together would be filled with uncomfortable silences. Granted, it probably said a lot about Sephiroth's mental status in that he found himself needing blood to grease the wheels of his social interactions.

Thankfully, just when Sephiroth was feeling like things could not get any more awkward, he discovered that he suddenly had an out. "Hey Seph, who do we know who owns a helicopter?" Sephiroth had never been more thankful for James' habit of saying whatever was on his mind.

Sephiroth quickly rushed outside to watch the helicopter descend out of the sky. Icicle Village had no particular accommodations for helicopters so the whirly bird just set down right outside of the church. Two doors opened at the same time and Reno and Rude stepped out. Granted it wasn't accurate to say that Reno "stepped out" instead he rolled out of it into the snow coming up into a crouching position gun drawn. He took one quick look around and then finally holstered the 9 MM pistol.

"It's okay to get out Mr. President, just Seraphim here, no deranged psychotics, anti-Shinra rebels, or jackasses with scores to settle." Sephiroth wasn't amused by this, but Reno was apparently quite proud of himself. Sephiroth had seen Reeve (now "Reeve Shinra" he guessed) before, but only a couple of times.

After all, Urban Development was not particularly connected with Shinra's military, or really anything that else that belonged to Shinra, including its budget. Reeve had always reminded Sephiroth of one of those particularly well bred (preferably with a genetic disease to go with it) dogs that was so skittish that it would run at the slightest sign of danger.

"General." Sephiroth nodded once to Reeve and then shook his head. "Sir, with all due respected, I'm going to take an indefinite leave of absence. I'm tired of having 'General' used like it's my first name and Sephiroth like it's my last, my last name is Valentine. You can find someone else to lead your armies; I'm going to lay low for a while. I trust you understand?" Reeve nodded, taking a moment to adjust his glasses.

"Very well, when I get back to Midgar, I'll start looking for a substitute and see about that back pay for the last five years during which you doubtlessly committed actions which were of great importance to the New Shinra organization. Now, if you don't mind, not all of us are quite as resistant to the elements as you are. Could we continue this conversation inside?"

Reeve was wearing only a simple blue business suit, and the cold was doubtlessly quite discomforting to him, though he bore it well. "Of course." Rude followed Reeve into the church. Reno darted back into the helicopter before following with a large package carried in both hands. "I suppose it's not worth asking what exactly you're doing here?"

Reno just shrugged. "Hard as it may be to believe, former General Sephiroth Valentine, even with this whole new touchy-feely government that's being set up it's not that hard to tell when the Valar leaves Rocket Town, traveling north. And really this is the only place it could go. Not to mention that there's no way that Shinra could have known that Dr. Gaste lived here when he went into hiding, it's inconceivable! So we, by which I mean the new President, decided that in the interest of showing that we aren't going to start killing each other all over again, he should show up at your wedding.

Meanwhile me and Rude are, well put against all of you, the token mooks who will obviously be the first to bite it if for some reason we do start killing each other. So please, take me seriously when I say that as I'm attracted to my life, I'd really prefer we didn't start killing each other. To sweeten the pot, we also brought a Heighdigger piñata, we would have made one of Hojo, but this way we could fit more candy in it."

Sephiroth was hardly moved. "I'm sure that James will appreciate it."

"I know. I figure that if I can convince him not to have me killed, then the rest of you guys aren't going to murder me in front of him, or out of his sight because he'd be asking you what happened to me till you told him which would be just as bad as doing it in front of him."

Sephiroth took a moment to think about how it might be necessary to slap a "Warning: objects in rumpled suits are smarter than they appear" sticker on Reno's forehead, or at least somewhere on his person. But Reno was so slippery that even with superglue it probably wouldn't be likely to keep very long.

"So what's it like being in bed with a girl who has paws?"

Reno would later swear that Sephiroth's answering glare stopped his heart for a few seconds, but he recovered quickly. "Hey I'm just conducting research."

"For what, exactly?"

Reno actually had a quite a sly look on his face, and it wasn't just the look of someone who thought he was being sly. "That's for me to know and for the Firecatwarrior family to find out. So, unless you want to kill me now and drop me off a glacier or into a crevice, or any of a dozen other ways you can off a guy out here and make sure he never gets found, I might as well be going in. Because, trust me on this, committing murder is never an acceptable reason for not being present at your own wedding."

With those words, Reno breezed past Sephiroth and into the church. Sephiroth was forced to revise his opinion of Reno yet again. Reno wasn't just a cockroach; he was an amoeba, a bacterium, having only one helix was the only possible explanation of how he could adapt to changing situations so quickly.

This was proven once again as soon as Sephiroth entered back into the church and found Reno sucking up not to James but to Vincent. "So, seeing as Tseng is still officially MIA and just about everyone who is going to come back from the dead has, would you be interested in being Turk Commander?" "I ate Tseng."

Reno did not so much as bat an eye. "Well then you are doubtlessly entitled to be Turk Commander! Congratulations, new boss! After all, is there any better proof that you're suited to the job than being able to do away with the previous holder? Speaking of how this is a brave new world with several job openings to anyone who hasn't had rigor mortis set in yet, I'd like to point that there seems to be a sudden dearth of people willing to work in Shinra's Science Department. Do we have any takers for that one?"

"I was third in command of Shinra's Science Department 30 years ago." Let no one say that Reno ever let an opportunity pass him by, in fact he was able to seize them like a pitbull did a postman's buttocks. "Well, let's see… 30 years, guy in charge, Gaste, regretfully dead. Second guy in charge, Hojo, enjoyably dead! Which means that the job is yours, if you want it. Don't worry, it's now socially acceptable for a wife to make more money than her husband."

It would be unfair to say that Reno was a man who was obviously going places. He was obviously a man who was staying right where he was, but that was still a feat that few people were capable of at times, he had hit his stride and was happy with it, they should all be so lucky.

Not to say that Sephiroth wasn't. With Reno distracting both of his parent's Sephiroth didn't have to worry about making conversation with them, it would be horrible world if it wasn't for career minded alcoholics.

The music started but it was not the wedding march, it was something else. Reeve had taken center stage, and apparently another one of James' "special defects" was installing the church with a reasonable speaker system all running on battery power.

"Hello, people, considering where we are, and what we're here for, there is no better time to talk about commitments." There was an audible crackle, then one of the huge speakers burst into flames. "Like the mental institution I should be committed to for even taking this job… " Reeve put down the microphone and raised his voice "Well, I was going to sing a rather nice song about responsibility and justice, but it seems like some higher power wants that to wait until the next office party." Reeve flinched as the heretofore burning speaker violently exploded, showering him and the nearby guests with flaming debris. The guests' attention was ripped from the spectacle by the sound of James cheering. Reeve gathered up the shreds of his composure and addressed the gathering "Anyway, I'd like to announce that New Shinra power company is officially investigating technologies in the fields of wind and solar power. We hope to wean our society off Mako in the next 10 years!" His piece spoken, Reeve fled the stage.

Sephiroth noted that there was something wonderfully stoic (in the sense of if you looked up the root of the phrase and found out that it could be applied to James in spades) about the small man (Reeve was only slightly taller than James at 5'6") who thought he could change the world. "Beautiful words cost nothing." Sephiroth was surprised to find that the words had come from his soon to be wife.

"I must be rubbing off on you, you're instantly doubting everything altruistic everyone says." Aeris laughed at that.

"I must be rubbing off on you, you're capable of accepting someone's altruistic motives as genuine." Sephiroth scoffed.

"A few points for you to consider: I fully doubt that most people are capable of holding altruistic motives, not that all people are. Both you and Professor Gaste are quite capable of altruism. Secondly, Reeve doesn't have altruism as his sole motivation, he knows quite well that disappearing from the public eye doesn't mean ignoring world events.

Finally, you have to understand the kind of experiences I've seen this man go through. He's was a board head with all the power of a midlevel bureaucrat, and the rest of Shinra did everything but spit on him, and he quietly kept working away for the good of everyone. He's been doing the job since he was 20, and he's three years older than I am. If he's capable of dealing with a job like that, for that long, there isn't a thing in the world that could possibly leave him mentally unbalanced." Aeris smiled at this discovery.

"I never realized that you could actually trust someone who hadn't ever done anything for you." Sephiroth crossed his arms. "Aeris its not that people have to do things for me to make me trust them, it's that people do things to me that make me not trust them. Reeve is trustworthy." Aeris took a deep breath. "It's just hard to believe that Shinra might be a positive force in the world."

Sephiroth's voice contained as little emotion as usual. "The tool determines the purpose, the hands select the tool, the mind controls the hands. Shinra is a company, its base nature is thus beyond reproach it, has none. What Shinra, what the planet needs at the moment is someone who practices tolerance of a way of life, not mercy, not punishment, but tolerance, and I do believe that that person just fled the stage."

"That's good because he's also the person who's going to be marrying you." Sephiroth turned to Mirri.

"What?" Mirri smiled up at him.

"Do you know how many priests there have been since mako power came about? I mean it's the path of human history how religion falls by the wayside as science proves that god(s) don't actually control the world. They make thunder by bowling, or cause the rain by crying. Ever since the Lifestream was proven we know that some god didn't even just plant us here like a bush in a flower pot. Hell, what am I doing giving you this speech, why don't we ask Alex? I've never gotten how a Cetra can believe in gods.

"Hey, Alex, where did Fenris come from?" Alex was in human shape at the moment because Vincent had convinced him that it wasn't nice to end up possibly shedding on the groups' nicest threads even if this was the only time they wore them. "Simple. When the Crisis from the Sky first fell from she created North Crater. Gaia did what she could to heal the wound, though the taint of the Wyrm stopped it from succeeding. However, little did Jormangundr know that the wolf who would become known as Fenris was nearby. He had been buried by the snow she kicked up when she landed, but it did not kill him; after all, wolves are used to such things.

He was a lone wolf, an alpha who had been banished from his pack by his own son because he had no purpose left, he was old, so he was simply waiting to die. Gaia had summoned her energies and found that no amount of Lifestream would help, so she turned to Fenris as he shook melting snow from his fur. 'Wolf, we have much in common for we both have our own destruction laid out before your eyes.' To which the wolf responded sagely. 'We are not as alike as you think. I am about to die the death of a long sleep. You are about to die the death of a rabbit seized by a hunter's jaws. Of course, both deaths are natural and right.'

Gaia was much surprised by this. 'You do not at all consider how the rabbit feels in this matter?' Fenris of course, didn't. 'No. But as you may have noticed, I do not think that the snow cats would care much for what I felt if they were to happen upon me in my current state. However, if you seek to thwart the natural order of things, then call into being a predator that will hunt down that which you fear.'

Gaia considered this, and then reconsidered Fenris. 'So you do not fear your death in the least. You have no regrets?' Fenris scoffed at this. 'I don't fear death, but of course I have regrets. I wish that I might once again sink my fangs into warm flesh. I wish that I might once again hunt with my pack and feel the glory of the wind in my fur. But these are the years that you have given me Gaia, and I have spent them. I can do nothing to oppose your will.'

By now Gaia was playing with an idea. 'What would you say to a chance to hunt the most dangerous prey ever?' Fenris barked a laugh. 'Give me more years, and more strength, and I swear that nothing will stop me 'til I have spent them.' So Gaia engulfed Fenris with the Lifestream and he was reborn as the first Garou." Mirri found apparently endless amusement in this story. "There you go, Sir. Now then, considering that in the navy, ship's captains can perform weddings, I'm fairly sure that as president of the civilized world, Reeve can do the same. After all, who is gonna argue with him?"

---

During the reception, Vincent turned to Reno. "So what exactly are your duties as my second in command?" Reno had his response at once. "Nothing involving paperwork or sodomy. Anything else, I'm pretty cool with." Reno felt a surge of panic as he realized that he may have just agreed to do none-paper-related actual work.

While Vincent and Reno hammered out a new job description, Rude walked over to Sephiroth and gestured at the two of them. "Do you know what's odd, whenever I look at him, I can't stop seeing part of you." This wouldn't have sounded so odd if Sephiroth hadn't been able to tell that Rude was referring not to Sephiroth's father, but to Reno. "Because both of you got to where you are on your own. I see it especially clearly when he's with Mirri. Because he does care for her, at least he appreciates her, but the funny thing is that he doesn't know any way to tell her that besides being a chauvinistic jackass. I guess that's the only way he ever saw people showing love when he grew up.

I saw you doing the same thing with Aeris. Not being a chauvinistic jackass, but totally screwing around when you could have just gotten to the point with a few well chosen words. Of course I also saw Tseng doing the exact same dance with the exact same steps. Granted, he never got past the 'love you' but not 'in love with you' stage. It's a terrible thing when people don't learn how to properly express their emotions. Granted the Status Quo has its perks as well, for one, it doesn't involve you stabbing me." Sephiroth sat in stunned silence after the longest strings of words he had heard Rude put together during his time at Shinra.

-----

"So how long do you think we should stay here?" Sephiroth looked out the window at the snow outside their house which had once belonged to Aeris' parents. Aeris was busy "livening the place up" in the sense that all Sephiroth thought they needed was a single bed and possibly running water. "How long do you think we can afford to stay?" Sephiroth had already taken up prime position on the bed while Aeris was setting up her own small greenhouse.

"I think we can as long as we want. Dad says that between him, Mom, and Reeve, they'll be able to run Shinra just fine. I'll be a tactical reserve, meaning that I'm not to be bothered for anything short of the next apocalypse. The world's going to be weaned off my name for a while. Bad enough I have to come back from the dead, but do that, save the world and have my name cleared by New Shinra? I wouldn't be able to walk down any street in Midgar. So, how long should we stay?"

Aeris looked at the flower bed for a moment wondering if there had been any point brining it all the way from "her" church in Midgar. Icicle Village got about as much sunlight as Lower Midgar because of the nearly constant cloud cover. That combined with the cold might make it even harder to grow flowers here than in Midgar. For the briefest moment she wondered if she would be able to grow flowers, and then realized how observed it was to worry.

"I don't know. Maybe a year after our child is born. This isn't much of a place for raising children." Sephiroth lay on his back but his wings (which he was sure somebody in Midgar would have ripped right out of their respective sockets (if that was a good or bad thing he hadn't decided) trying to pull feathers room) complained slightly so he rolled over. Apparently, he would be sleeping on his chest a lot now. "Don't worry about it. I think I'm through planning every single step of my life. Why don't we just try winging it for a while?"

The end.

Quick FN: The following scene was removed because once again, it falls into the category of "much too silly."

(Sephiroth walks out of Church in Icicle Village and looks up)

(Sees astral versions of Doctor Gaste, Zack, Jace)

Sephiroth: Right then...

Long FN: The last chapter in which the piece suddenly decides to have a Shakespearian ending! It does have all the classic ear marks after all: a wedding (or two), some music, and all of the heroic main characters getting laid, and so on and so forth... I also suppose I owe some props to Kevin Smith for the "Reno and Silent Rude" theme that has been going on throughout the fic and the other shoe finally dropped in this chapter. Oh, and what's this? VxL, the Mako Canon of pairings in the FF7 'verse! I can't figure out why you don't see it more frequently. It's not like resurrections are a rare thing in FF7 fiction. Which brings me to an idea for my next fic, Aeris Vs. Jean Grey, who will stay dead longer? Nah, that's just bad taste. If you couldn't see the similarities between Fenris' creation and Sephiroth's plan for apotheosis, for shame. Also, don't worry, the sequel is already in the works, we'll probably start posting it fairly soon after one short diversion. As for what's next, we're going to try to cultivate a larger fan base by posting something more widely appealing. It will be titled "Music of the Twilight" and be Phantom of the Opera with FF7 characters. But don't stop checking this fic for updates, because we're going to have one last one, with a whole bushel of deleted scenes for you. All that important stuff dealt with I'm just going to run through songs that I would have liked to have the characters sing but didn't get around for one reason or another (usually because it would mean two songs by the same group or it would have broken the rhythm of the fic). Vincent singing "All the gin joints in all the world" by Fall Out Boy to Lucresia. Sephrioth and Aeris doing a duet to "More than Useless" by Relient K. Reno singing "She's a rebel" by Greenday to Mirri. Reno singing "The Predator" by E-Type to Mirri. James singing "Beautiful Thing" by Sister Hazel to Mirri. Vincent singing "Renegade" by Hammerfall. A scene with Sephiroth singing/hummming "Drones" by Rise Against on his way to contact Mirri after getting back in Midgar. A flashback to Vincent and Lucresia to "Action" by Blink 182. And to cap it off, orrigionaly back in chapter 27 Sephiroth, Scar, and Vlad were suppose to jump up on the bar and sing "I want you bad" by Offspring, except this was removed on the grounds of being "much too silly". Okay seriously it was removed to keep you guys from realizing the amount of singing that would go on in this fic. Alex do you have anything to add?

OWAN: At last, exams are over! If any of you are wondering what Reno was planning to sing, well, that's being added to the outtakes chapter, too. James sure likes Bowling for Soup…


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